The Book of Broadway Musical Debates, Disputes, and Disagreements

The Book of Broadway Musical Debates, Disputes, and Disagreements PDF Author: Peter Filichia
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493067958
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 367

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Book of Broadway Musical Debates, Disputes and Disagreements is purposely meant to start arguments and to settle them. Broadway musical fans won’t always agree with the conclusions musical theater judge Peter Filichia reaches, but the best part of any drama is the conflict. Among lovers of musical theater, opinions are never in short supply, and Filichia addresses the most dividing questions and opinions in one book. What will you say when he asks, “What is the greatest opening number of a Broadway musical?” Will your answer be “The Circle of Life” from The Lion King, “Heaven on Their Minds” from Jesus Christ Superstar, or “Beautiful Girls” from Follies? Will you agree with his answer to “Whose Broadway performance in a musical was later best captured on film?” Did you immediately think of Robert Preston in The Music Man or Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl? More questions that will add to the fire include “What song from a musical is the most beloved?” and “What’s the worst song that a Broadway musical ever inflicted on us?” They’re all in The Book of Broadway Musical Debates, Disputes and Disagreements. Let the arguments begin!

The Book of Broadway Musical Debates, Disputes, and Disagreements

The Book of Broadway Musical Debates, Disputes, and Disagreements PDF Author: Peter Filichia
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493067958
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 367

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Book of Broadway Musical Debates, Disputes and Disagreements is purposely meant to start arguments and to settle them. Broadway musical fans won’t always agree with the conclusions musical theater judge Peter Filichia reaches, but the best part of any drama is the conflict. Among lovers of musical theater, opinions are never in short supply, and Filichia addresses the most dividing questions and opinions in one book. What will you say when he asks, “What is the greatest opening number of a Broadway musical?” Will your answer be “The Circle of Life” from The Lion King, “Heaven on Their Minds” from Jesus Christ Superstar, or “Beautiful Girls” from Follies? Will you agree with his answer to “Whose Broadway performance in a musical was later best captured on film?” Did you immediately think of Robert Preston in The Music Man or Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl? More questions that will add to the fire include “What song from a musical is the most beloved?” and “What’s the worst song that a Broadway musical ever inflicted on us?” They’re all in The Book of Broadway Musical Debates, Disputes and Disagreements. Let the arguments begin!

Broadway Musicals

Broadway Musicals PDF Author: Peter Filichia
Publisher: Applause Theatre & Cinema
ISBN: 1423495624
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Get Book Here

Book Description
When Evita opened on Broadway during the 1979-1980 season, it was (as one of its songs said) "High Flying Adored." But in the 1970-71 season, the producers of Lolita, My Love saw their show (as one of its songs said) "Going, Gone, Gone" after its torturous Philadelphia and Boston tryouts. It didn't even try to brave Broadway, although the bookwriter-lyricist of My Fair Lady had written it. It happens every season. Broadway has one, two, or a few hit musicals, but many, many more flops. Here's a look at the extreme cases from each season of the past half-century. The musicals that everyone knew would be hits - The Sound of Music, The Phantom of the Opera, The Producers - and were. The tuners that sounded terrible from the moment they were announced - Via Galactica, The Civil War, Lestat - and turned out to be even worse than anyone expected. The shows that were destined to succeed - Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Merrily We Roll Along - but didn't. The ones that didn't have a chance - Man of La Mancha, 1776, Grease - but went on to household-name status. Yes, Broadway is the oldest established permanent non-floating crap game in New York, and Peter Filichia takes a look at 100 shows that met either the most glorious or the most ignominious fates.

Strippers, Showgirls, and Sharks

Strippers, Showgirls, and Sharks PDF Author: Peter Filichia
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1250018447
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Wait..Gypsy didn't win the Tony for Best Musical?" That's a question that gets asked over and over again, every time a new Rose takes to the runway in the Broadway classic "Gypsy". In "Strippers, Showgirls and Sharks", the popular syndicated theatre critic Peter Filichia chronicles the history of the American musical by looking at those shows that did not win the Tony Award for Best Musical. It happens every spring: The American Theatre Wing bestows its annual awards. Only those shows that have reached Broadway are nominated and while all Tony Awards are created equal in height, width and depth, the universally acknowledged biggest prize is the Best Musical Tony. The envelope is opened. The winner is announced and, then, the screeching begins. "Oh no! They gave it to that?" Did the best musical always win the Best Musical prize? Were there other factors that kept a more deserving show from copping the prize? Peter Filichia answers all these questions and more in "Strippers, Showgirls and Sharks" as he looks at many of the 153 previous Best Musical Nominees that didn't win the big prize. What were the biggest omissions? "Gypsy" had the distinct displeasure of not being either the first or second choice of the committee. In 1959 when Ethel Merman and a variety of strippers took the stage, the Tony for Best Musical was a tie between "The Sound of Music" and "Fiorello". In 1971, Stephen Sondheim's "Follies" and its ghostly showgirls lost to a "groovy" re-tuning of "Two Gentlemen of Verona" that hasn't passed the test of time. And, in 1957, "West Side Story", its Jets and Sharks, were bested by the fine people of River City Iowa singing their Americana hearts out in "The Music Man". If you love Broadway, scratch your head on Tony Award night and still can't figure out how a show you loathed won the Tony for Best Musical, you will love riding through the years with Peter Filichia, one of America's most respected and popular theatre critics.

Not Since Carrie

Not Since Carrie PDF Author: Ken Mandelbaum
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN: 1466843276
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Get Book Here

Book Description
Not Since Carrie is Ken Mandelbaum's brilliant survey of Broadway's biggest flops. This highly readable and entertaining book highlights almost 200 musicals created between 1950 and 1990, framed around the notorious musical adaptation of Carrie, and examines the reasons for their failure. "Essential and hilarious," raves The New Yorker, and The New York Times calls the book "A must-read."

Experiencing Broadway Music

Experiencing Broadway Music PDF Author: Kat Sherrell
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0810889013
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 259

Get Book Here

Book Description
Experiencing Broadway Music: A Listener’s Companion explores approximately the last century of American musical theater, beginning with the early–twentieth-century shift from European influenced operettas and bawdy variety shows to sophisticated works of seamlessly integrated song and dance that became uniquely American. It concludes with an examination of current musical trends and practices on Broadway. As a musician who works on Broadway and in developmental musical theater, Kat Sherrell draws on her knowledge both as a historian of Broadway musical form and as a professional Broadway musician to offer an insider’s perspective on the development and execution of the past and present Broadway scores. Despite its enormous breadth, and given the historical significance of the musical in modern popular culture, Experiencing Broadway Music provides listeners—whether they know musical theater well or not at all—with the tools and background necessary to gain an understanding of the highly variegated structure and character of the Broadway musical over the past century.

GEMIGNANI

GEMIGNANI PDF Author: Margaret Hall
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493061062
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 421

Get Book Here

Book Description
Paul Gemignani is one of the titans of the modern musical theater industry. Serving as musical director for more than forty Broadway productions since 1971, his collaborations with Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, John Kander, Fred Ebb, Hal Prince, Michael Bennett, and Alan Menken have led to countless accolades for his collaborators, but due to the near invisible position of the musical director in the Broadway industry, Gemignani's story is often overlooked. Gemignani seeks to not only bring the reader into the orchestra pit to learn Gemignani's story but also educate the reader as to the crucial role a music director plays in bringing some of the most iconic musicals in Broadway history to life. Born into a second-generation Italian American family during the aftershocks of the Great Depression, Gemignani worked his way up from playing percussion in USO bands to conducting before Leonard Bernstein, all before becoming a pivotal player in the team that brought some of the most successful musicals of the late twentieth century to the stage. Sweeney Todd, Evita, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George, and Into the Woods would be quite different without his key contributions, and many of the sonic markers we now associate with the postmodern musical theater can be traced to Gemignani's careful curiosity to expand the bounds of what was possible.

The Ziegfeld Follies

The Ziegfeld Follies PDF Author: Ann Ommen van der Merwe
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 1461731739
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 278

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Ziegfeld Follies: A History in Song presents an account of the Follies through the musical productions contained in the show. Accessing primary sources such as magazines and extant programs, Ann Ommen van der Merwe has carefully researched the Follies, reconstructing the songs, dances, and content of each annual production from 1907 to 1931, providing detailed descriptions of song performances. In so doing, the book demonstrates the important role of song in facilitating the comedy and spectacle for which the Follies are better known. Ommen van der Merwe takes a broad, chronological approach to the material, addressing such issues as musical style, lyrics, and staging of individual songs. In the process, she identifies the historical trajectory of the Ziegfeld Follies, delineating periods within its history like the development of the production values Ziegfeld was famous for, the success of his spectacles, his adaptation to changing times, and his legacy. She also considers the cultural and performance history of the Follies and its reflection of the society in which it developed. An appendix lists the composer, lyricist, publisher, and performer of each Follies song, as well as a library collection or archive where a copy may be found. The book also includes a collection of photographs, a select discography, bibliography, and two indexes, by song title and general subject.

The Book of Broadway

The Book of Broadway PDF Author: Eric Grode
Publisher: Voyageur Press (MN)
ISBN: 076035734X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 331

Get Book Here

Book Description
Whether you're coming to Broadway fresh faced or are an old hand, you'll enjoy these 150+ profiles of the great musicals to hit the stage--including Hamilton!

West Side Story

West Side Story PDF Author: Elizabeth A. Wells
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0810876663
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 327

Get Book Here

Book Description
Wells presents a scholarly study of the American musical West Side Story, viewing the work from cultural, historical, and musical perspectives. --from publisher description.

The Golden Age of American Musical Theatre

The Golden Age of American Musical Theatre PDF Author: Corinne J. Naden
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 0810877341
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 275

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Golden Age of American Musical Theatre provides synopses, cast and production credits, song titles, and other pertinent information for over 180 musicals from Oklahoma! to On A Clear Day You Can See Forever. Concentrating on a 22-year span, this book lists both commercial successes and flops of the Golden Age-when the musicals presented on Broadway showcased timeless, memorable tunes, sophisticated comedy, and the genius of creative artists like Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, George Abbott, Moss Hart, Angela Lansbury, Robert Preston, and many others.