Show Boat — Page 3

Great magruder! I was thinking we only touched on a bit of Golden Apple, but for those unfamiliar, it might be good to give a little basic info and then move on to what makes it unusual/important entry in Broadway Musical History.

When I get back, I'll grab Milk and Honey. I don't know much about it other than a couple of interesting facts, so it'll be fun to get back into my research mode again. When I'm in Houston, I'll see if I can get hold of Stuart Ostrow and get some info from him as well. I haven't talked to him in a couple of years. It would be great to see him again.

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I'll tackle GOLDEN APPLE. I'm not sure if anyone opted for it or not.

Bulldog.

I thought magruder was taking Golden Apple. Magruder - are you taking Of Thee I Sing?

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Sounds like assignment wrap-ups.

Love THE APPLE TREE too.

Bulldog.

Haha thanks for the vote of confidence. I look forward to hearing about all these shows. Looks like we've got some good topics for awhile now, sadly some of them I have only heard about for the first time here. Does anyone know of any books that does a good job of recaping broadway history and important moments and stuff like that? I feel like I've missed a lot and I'd like to try to get caught up.

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Stanley Green's World of Musical Comedy and Musicals Show by Show are both very good for a comprehensive survey of musicals. Ethan Mordden has written a decade by decade series of books about musicals from the 1940s through the 1970s. He's highly opinionated, but enjoyable to read. Ken Mandelbaum's Not Since Carrie is pretty indispensable for a history of flop musicals.

Brooks Atkinson, former theatre critic of the New York Times, also wrote a very enjoyable book, Broadway, about the era of his criticism. There are also several books of collective reviews from the New York Times that are informative. One, called On Stage, I believe, has reviews from the 1920s through the 1970s. I also enjoyed Frank Rich's Hot Seat, which is a collection of his reviews from 1981 to 1994.

You can venture out to some very enjoyable autobiographies...
things like Harvey Sabinson's Darling, You Were Wonderful, Moss Hart's Act One, Cy Feuer's I've Got the Show Right Here, Richard Rodgers' Musical Stages, and if you can deal with more graphic sex than an 8th Avenue porn palace, Original Story by Arthur Laurents. Go to your local library or bookstore and look up books about George Abbott, Josh Logan, Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, Michael Bennett and Gower Champion. (Is there a book about Champion? At the very least, try to read up on his staging of Carnival).

I'll try to think of other suggestions.

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