Broadway Babies: The People Who Made the American Musical

by Ethan Mordden

Book Overview

Vividly recreating the unique pleasure of experiencing a song-and-dance show, Broadway Babies spotlights the men and women who made a difference in the development of American musical comedy. Mordden's account features such show people as Florenz Ziegfeld, Harold Prince, Bert Lahr, Gwen Verdon, Angela Lansbury, Victor Herbert, Liza Minnelli, and Stephen Sondheim, and such musicals as Sally, Oh Kay , Anything Goes, Show Boat, Oklahoma , Follies, Chicago, and countless others.
While theatrical historians traditionally have emphasized the role of the authors of musicals, Mordden also examines the personal styles of the directors, choreographers, and producers, in order to demonstrate not only what the musical became but what it was. The volume includes an extensive discography--the first of its kind--which offers a virtually self-contained history of recorded show music.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195054253
• ISBN13: 9780195054255
• Release Date: June 1988
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Indispensible!

The dean of American stagecraft, Ethan "Bud" Mordden, turns his considerable expertise to this 1983 volume that covers most of the 20th Century's musicals. Not only is this book quite well researched and written, it deals with most of the major shows of the period, from SUNNY to OKLAHOMA! to SWEENEY TODD. Mordden's insights are powerful, his writing style delectable. Give it a try!

Essential!

If I could only have one book on the American musical this would be it. Mordden goes into much more detail in his decade by decade books on the genre, but his major themes, brash perceptions, and constant wit are laid out with style and precision in this volume, which takes the musical to the time of Sweeney Todd.