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Title: Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical "Follies" by Ted Chapin ISBN: 0-375-41328-6 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 (10 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: THE GREATEST BROADWAY MUSICAL EVER
Comment: Ted Chapin is such a smart and amiable guide through the rehearsal and preview period of one of the (if not THE) greatest musicals ever written and performed, that it's a pity this book about the making of FOLLIES isn't better. Chapin was a keen observer and kept detailed notes on everything he saw and heard. Unfortunately he is not an especially talented writer, and one is aware that he is frequently pulling his punches and drawing a veil over interesting matters that might better have been revealed. Though the bare facts of FOLLIES' evolution are always interesting, there is woefully little good dish here: despite the fact that most of this musical's performers have died, Chapin seems unable or unwilling to give us vivid glimpses of their characters and personalities. What we learn has to be gleaned by reading between the lines or via the odd, gossipy anecdote that actually made it past editor Bob Gottlieb and the Knopf legal department. Chapin is unerringly bland where he should be trenchant and opinionated -- he after all had the benefit of hindsight as well as of his extensive diaries and fresh interviews with Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince. Perhaps Chapin's prominent position in Manhattan cultural life has made him too cautious. He also should have reprinted all of Frank Rich's student review of FOLLIES in an appendix since he describes it as having a striking effect on the creative team. And though the collection of color stills is an unexpected treat, this book has one of the ugliest designs and layout I have ever seen. FOLLIES deserved a more elegant book and a more challenging, provocative guide through its fascinating gestation.
Rating: 5
Summary: Riveting account of a Broadway birth
Comment: Ted Chapin is well-known figure in the Broadway community, and writes from a vantage point few of us will ever experience. He takes us step-by-step through the trials and tribulations of getting a Broadway musical through the rehearsal process, having obviously kept copious notes throughout. The fact that both Hal Prince and Stephen Sondheim read the manuscript and "...offered helpful corrections and suggestions" adds to the authenticity of the work. He doesn't overly glamorize the people involved, nor is it simply backstage gossip. We are taken through the many steps that are involved in putting up a huge Broadway musical, including helpful details of jobs that many people are not aware of, including music copying, orchestration, set design and construction, lighting, sound, costumes... and the people who try to keep them all together and created the finished masterpiece that is "Follies." I hate to sound trite, but I couldn't put it down!
Rating: 3
Summary: "I'm just a Broadway . . . neophyte"
Comment: Chapin's not much of a writer, but his backstage observations are caviar to the Follies aficionado. The flaw of the book is precisely what Chapin says it will be at the outset: he's presenting only what he saw and heard, and did not--not, that is, until the "call in the critics" finale of the text--attempt a broader perspective in any fashion, including by truly investigating, then or now, what was going on in rooms he wasn't in. The book might have benefited from a stronger editorial hand as well--it's irritatingly repetitive, always introducing information to the reader as if it hasn't been introduced already--but somehow it's eminently readable (I think the "eminently" applies only to those who come to the book with their fascination already built in).
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Title: Colored Lights : Forty Years of Words and Music, Show Biz, Collaboration, and All That Jazz by John Kander, Fred Ebb, Greg Lawrence, Liza Minnelli ISBN: 057121133X Publisher: Faber & Faber Pub. Date: 05 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: One More Kiss: The Broadway Musical in the 1970s by Ethan Mordden ISBN: 031223953X Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Pub. Date: 01 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title:Broadway's Lost Treasures ASIN: B0000BZNDK Publisher: Acorn Media Publishing Inc. Pub. Date: 28 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $18.71 |
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Title:Elaine Stritch at Liberty ASIN: B0000C23HO Publisher: Image Entertainment Pub. Date: 21 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.99 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $22.49 |
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Title:Avenue Q (Original Cast Recording) ASIN: B0000BZK1R Publisher: Rca Pub. Date: 07 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $13.49 |
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