| Abstract |
"The Broadway musical ... a magic phrase," Leonard Bernstein once said. Indeed, musical theater is one of America's major contributions to world culture. Yet, throughout this century three out of four Broadway-bound musicals have not succeeded economically. This book takes an engrossing look at the industry's commercial and artistic successes and failures in an effort to understand the group collaboration that is required to create Broadway musicals. The authors investigate the complicated machinery of Broadway musical show business and artistic development from the birth of the form around the turn of the century through its survival amidst the cost explosions of the 1980s. Through interviews with dozens of Broadway's top producers, directors, designers, actors, composers, lyricists, bookwriters, conductors, arrangers, and other artists, they lead us on an intimate tour of the creative process. Included are such well-known musical theater figures as Harold Prince, Arthur Laurents, Michael Bennett, Sheldon Harnick, Claire Nichtern, Tommy Tune, Burton Lane, Carol Hall, Frank Rich, and Gerald Schoenfeld. They explore the roles of producers, directors, lyricists, composers, and bookwriters in creating musical plays and the reactions of critic and audience. They conclude with a fascinating look at the inherent conflicts and tensions as well as the creative resolutions that shaped some of the best-known musicals of our time. Fans of the genre as well as scholars and students of American culture will delight in this revealing insider's look at the collaborative process in Broadway musicals and the recent history of one of America's most popular and indigenous entertainment forms, now recognized worldwide--the American musical. |
