Upcoming book on writing "Gentleman's Guide" and musicals to be released(?)

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 6/4/19 at 5:37pm

https://www.amazon.com/Notes-Writing-Gentlemans-Guide-Murder/dp/1495069826/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=gentleman%27s+guide+writing&qid=1559683980&s=gateway&sr=8-3

Stumbled across this on Amazon and was wondering if it's in a limbo. The release date was supposedly May 28. Reminds me of the Carrie book that was never released. Applause was also supposed to release Wicked as part of their "complete book and lyrics" series. Hopes this comes to fruition. I enjoyed the show and would buy this.

Description: The most frequently asked question about writing musicals is, "Which comes first, the music or the lyrics?" As anyone on Broadway will tell you, the answer is, "The book." Tony-winning book writer Robert L. Freedman takes you through the process of writing a new musical, including story structure, song placement, dialogue, character development, and more that led to the creation of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder , the 2014 Best Musical Tony winner. With candor and insight, Freedman describes the challenging and rewarding growing pains of what the critics called "Hilarious!" and "Ingenious!," and said "Ranks among the most inspired and entertaining new musical comedies I've seen in years."

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 6/4/19 at 5:42pm

This sounds super interesting. There's not really a book dedicated to writing the libretto of a musical. The book for Gentleman's Guide is great, so I'm definitely going to be checking this book out when it's published

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 6/5/19 at 2:39am

Take a look at Lehman Engel's WORDS AND MUSIC for an example. He was writing during the period of great musical books like MY FAIR LADY, THE MUSIC MAN and GYPSY. Some of his biases make us laugh nowadays (e.g., the "concept musical" was still sort of being invented, so he insists every musical must has a serious main couple and a comic secondary couple), but at least he takes book-writing seriously, at least in terms of the R&H tradition that had dominated Broadway for 20 years when Engel was writing and running his workshop.

[king_cohn]

Posted: 6/6/19 at 1:34am

Interesting... I wonder how it will address the whole Kind Hearts and Coronets copyright debacle (since the show as it played on Broadway was allegedly based on the novel Israel Rank, and not the movie).