It Happened on Broadway

Review posted to Goodreads:

****Copy from Netgalley in return for an honest review****

As someone who goes to quite a lot of theatre (we're talking 20+ shows a year) and managed seven Broadway shows in five days when I went to New York a few years back, this book jumped out at me when I saw it on Netgalley. It's a really interesting Oral History of Broadway - with stories from some of the best known names of the Golden Age and the people connected with them.

I really enjoyed getting some behind the scenes glimpses of the US theatre mecca - it's well put together each contribution flows nicely into the next, the chapters work and suddenly you've covered a decade or more. I think though that the book presupposes a fair amount of knowledge about some of the shows. There is a glossary of contributors at the start (but on the Kindle edition it's not always as easy to skip back to as it would be in a physical copy) but you need to have a bit of an idea of the shape of Broadway history and some of the characters involved. I suspect that to people connected with the industry more closely that I am, this book may not hold a lot of new information, but it is so fascinating it's probably still worth a look for them too.

Synopsis

A potted history of the golden years on Broadway; told by those who worked the theatre life and lived to tell the tale.

Review

There are very few things in this world that can cause a frisson of excitement to creep up my spine and make my hair stand on end. The most powerful of this small selection is the musical. There is something about them that can reduce me to the eighteen month old girl who turned to her mother whilst watching her very first stage production and said “Mummy, I want to be one of those girls up there.” Sadly, for me, the dream ended at eighteen but my love of theatre never wavered.

With It Happened on Broadway, I got to see that it wasn’t just me who had that same love and passion. As each of these people who were associated with musical theatre on Broadway shared their story I realised that I was living my dream through the telling of their reality. Granted, this wouldn’t have been my first choice but it was magnificent all the same.

What the writers’ have cleverly done is allow the colourful cast charm you with their tales, yet it is the editing that has told the diverse story off Broadway. For some, it would be a hard concept to conceive that a simple musical can help pinpoint a time in social, political and cultural change but the link between theatre and the aforementioned topics is inextricably linked. It is the fresh look at it from this angle that makes It Happened on Broadway such an interesting read.

Whether musicals are an interest of yours or not, this book has enough fascinating tales to keep even the most ardent theatre hater enthralled. For those who love musicals, this is a no-brainer. Buy this book. It is, quite frankly, amazing.

It Happened on Broadway An Oral History of the Great White Way by Myrna Katz Fromer and Harvey Fromer is available now.

Anyone who has even the most rudimentary interest in the theatre will like this book.  Note that this is a paperback re-issue of the book originally published in 1998.

I've longed decided that theatre people, more than any other group of people or profession, live in the past.  There are always stories to tell about things gone wrong or things gone extraordinarily right, and because we're often not sure what (or when) the next job is going to be, the jobs we have had are most of what we have to talk about.  In many ways, that's precisely what we have here, except that those telling some of these theatre stories are people who have inside scoops on some of the most famous people and most famous shows in the history of Broadway.

Every story in here was new to me and every moment was interesting.  Editors Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer have done an excellent job of gathering stories from some of the top names in the business and with only a few small exceptions, none of these stories had an air of superiority but were rather quite down-to-earth (this is not always the case when 'stars' tell stories from their early days).

This is a book every theatre geek should have on his or her shelf.

Looking for a good book?  It Happened on Broadway is a delightful reflection on some of the early days of theatre's mecca, often told by those who made it happen.

This book was really fun to read. With tidbits about a wide variety of actors spanning many decades, I didn't want to put it down. It was like story time for grown-ups.

If you are a theater buff, or an actor -- this book will capture your imagination from page one.

Fascinating book about Broadway. As a theater professional, I love the sheer amount of wonderful information in this book. Well done!