Broadway

At a critical, transitional moment in the history of Broadway - and, by extension, of American theatre itself - former Broadway stage manager Steven Adler enlists insider perspectives from sixty-six practitioners and artists to chronicle the recent past and glimpse the near future of the Great White Way.

This comprehensive volume profiles over 400 individuals who designed lighting on Broadway. Each career sketch is accompanied by a chronological listing of Broadway credits for lighting and also for scenic and costume design when relevant. An introduction surveys the development of the lighting design profession, and appendixes list winners of the three major awards in the field. A selective bibliography is also included. The index provides access from the play title to the designer, and indicates every play which a lighting designer is credited.

This book presents over 900 biographical sketches of these scenic designers active on Broadway between the 1915-16 and 1989-90 seasons, each sketch ending with Broadway credits. Winners of the major awards for scenic design are listed in appendixes, a selective bibliography is included, and an index provides access to the designers from the play titles. An introduction traces the development of the profession on Broadway, and reproductions of fifteen designer renderings span the period of coverage.

List of Illustrations Preface Introduction Designers and their Credits Appendixes: Tony Award, Marharam Award, Donaldson Award Illustrations Index of Plays

The classic musicals of Broadway can provide us with truly enchanted evenings. But while many of us can hum the music and even recount the plot from memory, we are often much less knowledgeable about how these great shows were put together. What was the inspiration for Rodgers and Harts Pal Joey, or Rodgers and Hammersteins Carousel? Why is Marias impassioned final speech in West Side Story spoken, rather than sung? Now, in Enchanted Evenings, Geoffrey Block offers theatre lovers an illuminating behind-the- scenes tour of some of the best loved, most admired, and most enduring musicals of Broadways Golden Era. Readers will find insightful studies of such all-time favorites as Show Boat, Anything Goes, Porgy and Bess, Carousel, Kiss Me, Kate, Guys and Dolls, The Most Happy Fella, My Fair Lady, and West Side Story. Block provides a documentary history of fourteen musicals in all--plus an epilogue exploring the plays of Stephen Sondheim--showing how each work took shape and revealing, at the same time, production by production, how the American musical evolved from the 1920s to the early 1960s, and beyond. The book's particular focus is on the music, offering a wealth of detail about how librettist, lyricist, composer, and director work together to shape the piece. Drawing on manuscript material such as musical sketches, autograph manuscripts, pre-production librettos and lyric drafts, Block reveals the winding route the works took to get to their final form. Block blends this close attention to the nuances of musical composition and stagecraft with trenchant social commentary and lively backstage anecdotes. Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, Kurt Weill, Frank Loesser, Leonard Bernstein, Sondheim, and other luminaries emerge as hardworking craftsmen under enormous pressure to sell tickets without compromising their dramatic vision and integrity. Opening night reviews and accounts of critical and popular response to subsequent revivals show how particular musicals have adapted to changing times and changing audiences, shedding light on why many of these innovative shows are still performed in high schools, colleges, and community theaters across the country, while others, such as Weills One Touch of Venus or Marc Blitzsteins The Cradle Will Rock, languish in comparative obscurity. Packed with information, including a complete discography and plot synopses and song-by-song scenic outlines for each of the fourteen shows, Enchanted Evenings is an essential reference as well as a riveting history. It will deepen readersappreciation and enjoyment of these beloved musicals even as it delights both the seasoned theater goer and the neophyte encountering the magic of Broadway for the first time.

The volume treats the reader to a comprehensive view of American commercial theater and how it operates. It provides a unique view of what some of the movers and shakers in the commercial theater think about the state of their business. With one exception, none of the people interviewed has ever before had an extended opportunity to discuss, for the record, the nature of their work, especially those aspects that are usually ignored by the media. Those interviewed made comments on four broad topics: their personal background and key experiences in the theater; their views on the present state of financing, production, writing, casting, directing and designing; their insights into day-to-day theatrical management; and their opinions on proposed changes in theatrical practices.

Is there a recording of the songs from Smile? How many scores by Sondheim have been recorded in the past ten years? Answers to these and other such questions can be found in this unique volume. All shows are listed alphabetically, and essential information is included for each song, as well as other recordings of the same score and who recorded them. There are performer, composer, lyricist, and musical director indexes, making this a user-friendly reference. This volume, along with the author's previous discographies (Greenwood 1987, 1989, 1990), provides a definitive reference source for recorded musicals--from Broadway, Hollywood, television, or merely "hoping-to-be-produced"--up to 1995. The work is useful not only to scholars and students but also to the collector of musical show recordings.

Actors Danny Kaye, Imogene Coca, and Carol Burnett, director Max Liebman, choreographer Jerome Robbins, composers Sylvia Fine and Mary Rodgers, and writers Woody Allen and Neil Simon are a small sampling of the major entertainment figures nurtured at Camp Tamiment, an adult summer camp that operated a playhouse in Pennsylvania's Pocono mountains. In this social history, peppered with anecdotes from oral histories and interviews of the "graduates of Tamiment" and archival materials, including original skits and lyrics, LoMonaco documents and illuminates a significant time and place of American entertainment.

Documentation for approximately three hundred shows is provided in this unique reference book. The title of each show is followed by its theatre, opening date, number of performances, complete list of creative personnel, cast credits, and, where appropriate, a list of the show's songs. Biographical entries are also included.