Authors: Mark Steyn
ISBN-13: 9780415922869, ISBN-10: 0415922860
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Taylor & Francis, Inc.
Date Published: April 1999
Edition: (Non-applicable)
"An eccentric, funny, shrewd book . . . absorbing and amusing reading."
--The New York Times Book Review
The glorious tradition of the Broadway musical from Irving Berlin to Jerome Kern and Rodgers and Hammerstein to Stephen Sondheim. And then . . . Cats and Les Miz. Mark Steyn's Broadway Babies Say Goodnight is a sharp-eyed view of the whole span of Broadway musical history, seven decades of brilliant achievements the best of which are among the finest works American artists have made. Show Boat, Oklahoma!, Carousel, Gypsy, and more.
In an energetic blend of musical history, analysis, and backstage chat, Mark Steyn shows us the genius behind the 'simple' musical, and asks hard questions about the British invasion of Broadway and the future of the form. In this delicious book he gives us geniuses and monsters, hits and atomic bombs, and the wonderful stories that prove show business is a business which -- as the song goes --there's no business like.
Until recently there has been only a small shelf of good books on the subject....Now we have a new eccentric, funny, shrewd and somewhat dismaying book....a dangerously flawed book, yet one that, for anyone intrested in the musical, is absorbing and amusing reading.
Overture: The Fix | 3 | |
Act One | 11 | |
i | The Op'nin' | 13 |
ii | The Show | 22 |
iii | The Music | 29 |
iv | The Lyrics | 45 |
v | The Book | 62 |
vi | The Jews | 74 |
vii | The Cues | 88 |
viii | The Take-home Tune | 104 |
ix | The Property | 117 |
x | The Genius | 128 |
Intermission: The Real World | 149 | |
Act Two | 161 | |
i | The Brits | 163 |
ii | The Line | 178 |
iii | The Fags | 196 |
iv | The Rock | 213 |
v | The Jokes | 228 |
vi | The Star | 241 |
vii | The Flops | 254 |
viii | The Depilators | 262 |
ix | The Maximalist | 273 |
x | The Future | 287 |
Exit Music: The Survivor | 307 | |
Acknowledgements | 319 | |
Bibliography | 324 | |
Index | 326 |