To be honest, I'm not that enthralled with most of the omnibus "show by show" type books that I've seen. They seem to lack any real substance either about the creators, the show itself (hint: a useful synopsis is more than a paragraph), or the general context of the era. There used to be (and might still be) a series of books which basically have a photo, one line synopsis, and cast information for everything Broadway and Off-Broadway year by year and those are EXCELLENT for basic fact checking through I don't have any of them (I do remember the 1994 book having a photo of the workshop cast for RENT not published anywhere else.)
The exceptions in terms of information value are Ken Mandelbaum's books (Not Since Carrie is brilliant) and Steve Suskin's Broadway Yearbooks, which include both the trivia for the obsessives *and* useful criticism and contextual data for historians and those who want to look back and see the significance or lack thereof for a specific production.
Suskin also compiled "Second Act Trouble," which focuses largely on mega-flops from the golden age of Broadway though IMHO it's an obvious contractual obligation volume as about 90%+ of its text is comprised of feature length newspaper and magazine articles about the shows in question with commentary ranging from a paragraph to a page by Suskin at the end with some brief introductory material.
The other omnibus book I'd recommend instantly? "Hot Seat" by Frank Rich. While Michael Billington may be the king of British critics (and he did sign his book "One Night Stands" for me), the Graduion's 350 word limit makes for tenuous and cursory glimpses rather than a genuine sense of time and place. Rich had 800-1200 words per review plus longer commissions for the Sunday Times Magazine and his reviews are all the more enjoyable for it. The book also benefits from then-contemporary retrospects and commentary (it was compiled in the late 90's) which again provide context and a sense of history. Unfortunately "Hot Seat" is out of print, but copies can be had for cheap from Mr. Abebooks' antiquarian selection or from Mr. Amazon.
Updated On: 5/26/09 at 12:11 PM
.jpg?format=auto&width=300)
