Book Description
Just in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Broadway comes the first book on the subject that is as lively and as visually rich as a Broadway show. This lush celebration chronicles the 101 most influential, popular, and enduring shows—along the way profiling dozens of composers, writers, performers, designers, and others who have contributed to the art form. Expert commentary sets the shows in historical and cultural context and provides an unparalleled overview of musicals from their roots in 19th-century operetta through today’s technically ingenious and stylistically diverse productions. The 850 photographs—most never before published or seen—provide glimpses of legendary performances that were thought lost forever, and a brand-new view of the art form, even for diehard aficionados. Plot synopses, cast and song lists, production details, backstage anecdotes, and quotations supplement the text and pictures for every entry. Special illustrated features throughout the book include Cast Albums, Guilty Pleasures, Off Broadway, Notable Flops, Film Stars Who Attempted Broadway, Great Scores from So-so Shows, Posters, and more. A Foreword by musical theatre (and television) legend Jerry Orbach lends an insider’s view.
About the author
KEN BLOOM is the author of three seminal works on American popular song: American Song, Hollywood Song, and Tin Pan Alley. His Broadway: An Encyclopedic Guide to the History, People, and Places of Times Square was named one of the top reference books of the year by the New York Public Library and was recently reissued in a new edition. In 2003 he published Jerry Herman: The Lyrics and a two-volume history of Twentieth-Century Fox music. Bloom is also a playwright, a theatre director, a radio host, an arts consultant, and the president of Harbinger Records.
FRANK VLASTNIK is an actor who appeared in the original casts of the Broadway musicals Big, Sweet Smell of Success, and A Year with Frog and Toad, as well as the New York premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s Saturday Night. This is his first foray into writing, having previously done the photo research and editing for Ken Bloom’s Jerry Herman and Richard Norton’s A Chronology of American Musical Theatre.
