Present at the Creation: Leaping in the Dark and Going Against the Grain: 1776, Pippin, M. Butterfly, La Bete & Other Broadway Adventures

by Stuart Ostrow

"The best way I know to resuscitate the theatre is to produce dangerous new works." - Stuart Ostrow.

Producer Stuart Ostrow's manifesto of how intelligent life might be restored to the theatre is also a unique personal memoir of the producer-creator relationship and an evaluation of the essentials that can make a show fly, or remain earthbound. As a solo producer, Ostrow's many productions include M. Butterfly, which won the Tony...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1557836469
• ISBN13: 9781557836465
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Applause Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Written on the Wind

I was reading along with great fascination, for here was a man who had been to go-to boy for the great Frank Loesser, author of GUYS AND DOLLS and GREENWILLOW. Then I realized, a good two thirds of these anecdotes were yawningly familiar to me from having read them before--somewhere--but where? I was experiencing deja vu--my friend Tim called it my "Fugue for Tinhorns," but only a real show queen could tell you what he was referring to. Turned out beloved Ostrow was double dipping and he had printed all these same stories in his first memoir the first time around! The book was THEN called "A Producer's Broadway Journey." I felt cheated, as though I had been lied to or ripped off. Tim, my showbiz friend, mocked my discomfort, asking me how many tomes I had to buy and read by Stuart Ostrow to get the point, that a producer who has long running shows doesn't believe in the concept that you have to give them something different every night. No! You just put on the same show 8 times a week and nobody complains. Indeed I wouldn't have complained if he has just kept the same title for his book, but instead because he updated the earlier memoir a tad (to include some recent flops, boo hoo) he feels justified in giving the old mutton a new title of lamb. That would be great if you were just paying a few cents more for the new info, instead you're paying the full price for merchandise already received. Nevertheless, the book is great. I advise everyone with an interest in theater to buy several copies and distribute it yourself if need be. He has the inside scoop on all the backstage devisions which changed our lives, including the bizarre $80,000 set that Tony Walton designed for THE APPLE TREE which sank the production. Speaking of bizarre, what ever happened to Barbara Harris? Poor Barbara, claims Ostrow, was having a nervous breakdown due to Warren Beatty the very night she won the Tony Award for the spirited playing in APPLE. They had to shove her on stage every night. I hope she's okay! Ostrow also tells us all we need to know, and more, about the inexplicable casting of Ron Silver in LA BETE. What he doesn't explain is why he and Jennifer Tipton ever thought LA BETE would be a success in the first place. He gives excerpts, and it's terrible. It's a great chance for Ostrow to vent on all the people who gave him grief over the years. He really carves up John Dexter. The trouble is, most of these people are faded figures and who cares. However, if you are curious about the day to day struggles that attended the birth of 1776 (the musical) you might like this tepid rehash.

The Man Knows His Stuff

I've been through 2 rounds of Mr. Ostrow's Musical Theatre Lab at UofH. I can tell you this: He's the genuine article. The straight goods. Broadway itself has been dismantled, dismembered and warehoused -replaced by a Vegas-style act about Broadway. Every day, hopeful innocents who haven't heard the news (or those who have heard, but refuse to heed)that a corporate machine has taken over 42nd St plunk down hard-earned c-notes to hear those tappin' feet. 'Tis machine which roars with the marketing machine of a Lion but has the artistic cajones of a Mouse. This machine, and the copycat slimy suits who claim to defy gravity while being pulled by nothing but green, cannot compare to the integrity, grit, vision, Ostrow. His ego, like all the greats, is Ostrow-nomical (sorry), yet utterly dwarfed by his passion and commitment to excellent storytelling. He's lived it. He's done it. He may well do it again. Good God we should be so lucky. In the meantime, I'm proud to have survived his classes, and grateful for the time spent at his feet. (...)