looking for a good book
looking for a good book
Theatreboy33
Broadway Star Joined: 5/19/03
#0looking for a good book
Posted: 9/3/06 at 11:34amIve got some time on my hands and I'm looking for a good read. Just recently finished Engel's Words with Music book and enjoyed it quite a bit. Anyone have any suggestions of theatre/broadway subject books?
#1re: looking for a good book
Posted: 9/3/06 at 11:50amWell, Donna McKechnie's memoir, "Time Steps" just came out. That was very good, in my opinion. You might like that.
RentBoy86
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
#2re: looking for a good book
Posted: 9/3/06 at 11:55am
Depends what angle you're coming from, but as an actor, I really liked:
"Letters from Backstage"
"A Year With The Producers"
"Making It On Broadway"
#4re: looking for a good book
Posted: 9/3/06 at 12:43pm
Unless you're a Music Major avoid How Sondheim Found His Sound by Steve Swayne. I picked this up at the Borders tent at Ravinia during Gypsy and I've studied music and I love Sondheim and I can read an orchestral score, but by gosh! This thing reads like a doctoral thesis or a text for some particularly esoteric Masters program on composition.
On the other hand I also picked up Gypsy Rose Lee's The G-String Murders. What a hoot! It gives what I'm guessing is a very true account of life backstage during the burlesque age - very Runyonesque.
And speaking of Runyon - there's a whole world out there beyond the text of Guys & Dolls - get the short stories contained in the volume called Guys & Dolls. There are some wonderful and heartwarming tales there. While they are short stories and episodic in nature, characters do follow through - some of whom you'll recognize. It's also fun to see the genesis of the musical.
A few other titles just glancing at my bookshelves:
The Collected Works of Harold Clurman
The Art of Boris Aronson
Broadway Day & Night
Anything by Ethan Mordden
All His Jazz and Razzle Dazzle (biographies of Bob Fosse)
Journey to the Center of the Theatre by Walter Kerr
An American Theatre - the story of the Westport County Playhouse
Will by Grace Tiffany - a fictionalized account of Shakespeare's career.
Salesman in Beijing or Timebends by Arthur Miller
The Neil Simon autobiographies
"Love Life. Live." Michael Bennett
Updated On: 9/3/06 at 12:43 PM
#5re: looking for a good book
Posted: 9/3/06 at 2:05pm
Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies by Ted Chapin
Brilliant and fun read!
"It's not so much do what you like, as it is that you like what you do." SS
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
ashley0139
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/3/05
#6re: looking for a good book
Posted: 9/3/06 at 3:40pmI love Making it on Broaday. Brilliant. I can read it over and over.
"This table, he is over one hundred years old. If I could, I would take an old gramophone needle and run it along the surface of the wood. To hear the music of the voices. All that was said." - Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife
TheEnchantedHunter
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/27/05
#7re: looking for a good book
Posted: 9/3/06 at 4:41pm
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BROADWAY MUSICAL by Mark D. Grant, the most important book written about the genre in years. It puts such unsatisfactory fare like SECOND ACT TROUBLE, the poorly written burlesques by Ethan Mordden, and silly books like EVERYTHING WAS POSSIBLE in the shade. The latter was a particular disappointment as it is not only uninsightful when it comes to the FOLLIES' team creative process but I expected more from Chapin than the continuing saga of Yvonne de Carlo hitting on little Teddy.
Countess Olenska
New York City
Updated On: 9/5/06 at 04:41 PM
#8re: looking for a good book
Posted: 9/3/06 at 4:44pm
David Merrick: The Abominable Showman was good, I thought.
Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland was great.
A Cat's Diary by Stephen Mo Hanan.
Art Isn't East: The Theatre of Stephen Sondheim is wonderful.
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy."
-Charlie Manson
neddyfrank2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/23/05
#11re: looking for a good book
Posted: 9/3/06 at 8:20pm
Read Shep Mead's "How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" and see how much hilarious stuff Abe Burrows was forced to leave out of the musical. Mead's description of how to choose art for your portfolio is gutbustingly funny.
And you'll meet the character who didn't make it to the play, Young Bibber....
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=972787#3631451
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=963561#3533883
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=955158#3440952
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=954269#3427915
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=955012#3441622
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=954344#3428699
#12re: looking for a good book
Posted: 9/3/06 at 8:25pmMost of my suggestions have already been mentioned, but I'd also suggest Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops by Ken Mandelbaum.
And no one grew into anything new, we just became the worst of what we were."
GYPSY3
Swing Joined: 8/27/06
#13re: looking for a good book
Posted: 9/3/06 at 8:36pmLehman Engel's autobiography:THIS BRIGHT DAY,c.1974 is a wonderful book, very well written and informative. I can still picture him in the pit conducting "Li'l Abner","I Can Get It For You Wholesale", Take Me Along", and "Bajour", among others. And all those wonderful studio cast recordings he made of musicals from the 1940's.He was a great talent!
#14re: looking for a good book
Posted: 9/7/06 at 9:00pmAs so many have said, if you haven't read "Everything was Possible", do so now. It's exceptional.
#15re: looking for a good book
Posted: 9/7/06 at 9:14pm
Without You by Anthony Rapp. I read the entire memoir in one night, LOVED it. His writing sytle is fantastic and his stylistic voice rings clearly through the novel.
Also, you may wish to start reading some source material:
"The Color Purple," by Alice Walker
"Little Women," Louisa May Alcott
"Jane Eyre," Charlotte Bronte
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
To Kill A Mockingbird
To Kill A Mockingbird
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