Download or read book The Anatomy of a Broadway Musical written by Stuart Ostrow and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2012-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Musicals are created by a disparate group of composers, lyricists, book writers, producers, directors, chorographers, theater owners, investors, general managers, casting directors, press agents, musical directors, orchestrators, dance arrangers, stage managers, and assistants. In The Anatomy of a Musical, producer Stuart Ostrow examines all of these in an attempt to fathom the musical's miraculous development, from the idea to the stage. Ostrow evaluates both the tangible and intangible essentials of a musical that make it fly or remain earthbound - music, lyrics, book, dance, direction, scenery, costumes, lighting, actors, energy, lunacy, drama, show savvy, and exhilaration. Master these essentials, and you can pick up your Tony Award. While the book is a celebration of the Broadway musical, it is also a meditation on what has caused its decline. It contains many personal references and anecdotes, some tragic, some comic, and others simply human. As the author shares his journey, he illuminates the character and ambitions of many of those he met along the way.
Download or read book Making a Broadway Musical written by and published by . This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Secret Life of the American Musical written by Jack Viertel and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2016-03-01 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Bestseller For almost a century, Americans have been losing their hearts and losing their minds in an insatiable love affair with the American musical. It often begins in childhood in a darkened theater, grows into something more serious for high school actors, and reaches its passionate zenith when it comes time for love, marriage, and children, who will start the cycle all over again. Americans love musicals. Americans invented musicals. Americans perfected musicals. But what, exactly, is a musical? In The Secret Life of the American Musical, Jack Viertel takes them apart, puts them back together, sings their praises, marvels at their unflagging inventiveness, and occasionally despairs over their more embarrassing shortcomings. In the process, he invites us to fall in love all over again by showing us how musicals happen, what makes them work, how they captivate audiences, and how one landmark show leads to the next—by design or by accident, by emulation or by rebellion—from Oklahoma! to Hamilton and onward. Structured like a musical, The Secret Life of the American Musical begins with an overture and concludes with a curtain call, with stops in between for “I Want” songs, “conditional” love songs, production numbers, star turns, and finales. The ultimate insider, Viertel has spent three decades on Broadway, working on dozens of shows old and new as a conceiver, producer, dramaturg, and general creative force; he has his own unique way of looking at the process and at the people who collaborate to make musicals a reality. He shows us patterns in the architecture of classic shows and charts the inevitable evolution that has taken place in musical theater as America itself has evolved socially and politically. The Secret Life of the American Musical makes you feel as though you’ve been there in the rehearsal room, in the front row of the theater, and in the working offices of theater owners and producers as they pursue their own love affair with that rare and elusive beast—the Broadway hit.
Download or read book The Secret Life of the American Musical written by Jack Viertel and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-03 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Putting it together, bit by bit: an insider’s look at the anatomy of the Broadway musical
Download or read book Tuck Everlasting The Musical written by and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2016-08-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Vocal Selections). This 2016 Broadway musical based on the children's novel of the same name by Natalie Babbitt was nominated for a Tony Award and won four Suzi Bass Awards. The vocal selections feature 13 arrangements of vocal lines with piano accompaniment. Songs include: Everlasting * Everything's Golden * Good Girl Winnie Foster * Hugo's First Case * Live like This * My Most Beautiful Day * Partner in Crime * Seventeen * The Story of the Tucks * Time * Top of the World * The Wheel * You Can't Trust a Man.
Download or read book The Broadway Musical written by Bernard Rosenberg and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three out of four Broadway-bound musicals fail to get there, and many of those that do, ultimately fail. The Broadway Musical takes an engrossing look at the industry's successes and failures in an effort to understand the phenomenon of mass collaboration that is Broadway. The authors investigate the complicated machinery of show business from its birth around the turn of the century through its survival of the cost explosions of the 1980s. Through interviews with many of Broadway's top producers, directors, designers, actors, songwriters, lyricists, librettists, musicians, and other artists, they lead us on an intimate tour of the creative process. They also explore the roles of top executives and the reactions of critics and audiences. They conclude with a fascinating look at the inherent conflicts and tensions that have resulted in some of the most seamless and best-loved productions on Broadway. Fans of the genre as well as scholars and students of American culture will delight in this revealing insider's look at the scenes behind the scenes and the history of one of America's most popular forms of entertainment. The effort that goes into making a Broadway musical is enormous, first requiring the enthusiasm of a group of initial creative artists and then the cooperation of hundreds of talented individuals and the investment of millions of dollars before each show is ready to open. Each venture is marked perhaps more by conflict than collaboration, and the continuation of the industry seems more remarkable when it is revealed that three out of four Broadway musicals fail to break even on Broadway. What goes into the making of a successful musical? No venture can be a success without good collaboration, but whether it is good or bad in any specific case cannot be known beforehand. The Broadway Musical is an investigation into this phenomenon of collaboration and its seeming unpredictability. To gather information, Bernard Rosenberg and Ernest Harburg have interviewed many of the top producers, directors, designers, players, songwriters, lyricists, librettists, and other artists that are responsible for today's Broadway musicals. Starting with the development of the industry itself, the authors investigate the complicated machinery of show business and detail how it was able to survive the rapidly rising costs of productions in the 1980s. Proceeding to the creative aspects of the show, the authors provide an intimate look at the assembling of the musical at every level, detailing the workings of the top executives, musicians, songwriters, techne, the reaction of the critics and the audience. The book concludes with a lengthy look at the phenomenon of collaboration itself, describing the inherent conflict and tension that often adds to the production of a Broadway musical. The Broadway Musical is an engrossing look at the successes and failures of this most elaborate form of live entertainment.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of The American Musical written by Raymond Knapp and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-11-04 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of The American Musical offers new and cutting-edge essays on the most important and compelling issues and topics in the growing, interdisciplinary field of musical-theater and film-musical studies. Taking the form of a "keywords" book, it introduces readers to the concepts and terms that define the history of the musical as a genre and that offer ways to reflect on the specific creative choices that shape musicals and their performance on stage and screen. The handbook offers a cross-section of essays written by leading experts in the field, organized within broad conceptual groups, which together capture the breadth, direction, and tone of musicals studies today. Each essay traces the genealogy of the term or issue it addresses, including related issues and controversies, positions and problematizes those issues within larger bodies of scholarship, and provides specific examples drawn from shows and films. Essays both re-examine traditional topics and introduce underexplored areas. Reflecting the concerns of scholars and students alike, the authors emphasize critical and accessible perspectives, and supplement theory with concrete examples that may be accessed through links to the handbook's website. Taking into account issues of composition, performance, and reception, the book's contributors bring a wide range of practical and theoretical perspectives to bear on their considerations of one of America's most lively, enduring artistic traditions. The Oxford Handbook of The American Musical will engage all readers interested in the form, from students to scholars to fans and aficionados, as it analyses the complex relationships among the creators, performers, and audiences who sustain the genre.
Download or read book Making a Broadway Musical written by John D. Mitchell and published by Fordham University Press. This book was released on 1989 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Anatomy of a Suicide written by Alice Birch and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-08-26 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Alice Birch's new play is scored like a piece of music ... It is an extraordinary echoing text, full of pain and strange beauty. The three stories play out simultaneously on stage, the dialogue from one scene overlapping with the other two in a manner that borders on the choral ... Birch has provided a text that explores these ideas in a formally invigorating way." The Stage Three generations of women. For each, the chaos of what has come before brings with it a painful legacy. A powerful, unflinching look at a family afflicted with severe depression and mental illness. Presented as a triptych of plays performed side by side, this groundbreaking play reverberates with audiences and readers. Published for the first time in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, this edition features a brand new introduction by Ava Davies.
Download or read book Writing The Broadway Musical written by Aaron Frankel and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2009-09-09 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brimming with advice and techniques, this essential reference for book- and songwriters clearly explains the fundamentals of the three crafts of a musical—book, music, and lyrics. Using copious examples from classic shows, Frankel has created the quintessential musical writers' how-to. Among the topics:definitions of musical theater; differences between musical books and straight plays and between poetry and lyrics; what a score is and how it develops; how to write for the voice; and how to audition musicals for producers. With a new introduction and revised text, Frankel's work is ready to guide a new generation of aspiring writers.
Download or read book Anatomy of Gray written by Jim Leonard and published by Concord Theatricals. This book was released on 2006 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: People in the fictitious town of Gray, Indiana, start to develop a strange disease after the first doctor comes to town.
Download or read book The Great American Book Musical written by Denny Martin Flinn and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2008 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I'm trying to leave a record of the technique, to create a blueprint for an ancient art." - Denny Martin Flinn Devoted theatergoers fondly remember Broadway's Golden Age - when musical theatre reached its apex and creativity was infused into every time signature, witty remark, and kick-ball-change. Denny Martin Flinn analyzes the classic musicals of that era, outlining the unique artistic and theatrical qualities that elevate these great American book musicals.
Download or read book Music Fundamentals for Musical Theatre written by Christine Riley and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-01-09 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Musical theatre students and performers are frequently asked to learn musical material in a short space of time; sight-read pieces in auditions; collaborate with accompanists; and communicate musically with peers, directors, music directors and choreographers. Many of these students and performers will have had no formal musical training. This book offers a series of lessons in music fundamentals, including theory, sight-singing and aural tests, giving readers the necessary skills to navigate music and all that is demanded of them, without having had a formal music training. It focuses on the skills required of the musical theatre performer and draws on musical theatre repertoire in order to connect theory with practice. Throughout the book, each musical concept is laid out clearly and simply with helpful hints and reminders. The author takes the reader back to basics to ensure full understanding of each area. As the concepts begin to build on one another, the format and process is kept the same so that readers can see how different aspects interrelate. Through introducing theoretical ideas and putting each systematically into practice with sight-singing and ear-training, the students gain a much deeper and more integrated understanding of the material, and are able to retain it, using it in voice lessons, performance classes and their professional lives. The book is published alongside a companion website, which offers supporting material for the aural skills component and gives readers the opportunity to drill listening exercises individually and at their own pace. Music Fundamentals for Musical Theatre allows aspirational performers - and even those who aren't enrolled on a course - to access the key components of music training that will be essential to their careers.
Download or read book The A to Z of the Broadway Musical written by William A. Everett and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2009-09-17 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Broadway musical has greatly influenced American (and world) culture. Such shows as Oklahoma! and Annie Get Your Gun are as 'American as apple pie,' while the long runs of imports like Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and Les MisZrables have broken records. Broadway has produced such cultural icons as Ethel Merman, Yul Brynner, and Julie Andrews, and composers and lyricists such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and many others have had their melodies sung on its stages. Visionaries like George Abbott, Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, Tommy Tune, and Susan Stroman have brought productions to life through their innovative direction and choreography. Since the latter part of the 19th century, the Broadway musical has remained one of the most popular genres in entertainment and its history is related in detail in The A to Z of the Broadway Musical. Through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and 900 dictionary entries on Broadway shows, playwrights, directors, producers, designers, and actors, this handy desk reference offers quick information on the many aspects of the Broadway musical.
Download or read book GEMIGNANI written by Margaret Hall and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-05-15 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Sondheim s Broadway Musicals written by Stephen Banfield and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first in-depth look at the work and career of one of the most important figures in the history of musical theater
Download or read book Experiencing Broadway Music written by Kat Sherrell and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-09-29 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
