Download or read book How to Survive a Killer Musical written by Douglas J. Cohen and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-09-08 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the young composer-lyricist Douglas Cohen first secured the musical rights to the novel No Way to Treat a Lady by William Goldman—the acclaimed author of The Princess Bride and Marathon Man—he hoped it would be his big break, the first step on a gilt path to artistic triumph and commercial success in the form of a hit Broadway musical. What happened after that, while memorable, was anything but. How to Survive a Killer Musical chronicles Cohen's decade-long quest to bring that musical to the stage—writing, re-writing, and shepherding it across the US and Europe amidst all manner of adversity and plain rotten luck. It's a fascinating portrait of passion, persistence, and resilience—a coming-of-age story populated with famous mentors and formidable adversaries, told with refreshing honesty and humor. On Cohen's journey, we meet an unforgettable, vividly rendered cast of characters, including: an Oscar-winning screenwriter who invites Cohen to his personal screening room for a marathon midnight writing session; a Tony Award-winning director making his comeback after a horrific accident renders him a quadriplegic; and a celebrated, volatile British director who inspires a fruitful collaboration in London, only to later leave carnage in his wake. Catastrophes abound, including the near-fatal stabbing of a female lead in rehearsal and an onstage accident incapacitating another leading lady—leaving only the author to go on in her place! Whether you’re a fan of musicals or just someone who’s trying to bring a passion project into the world, this tale of fortitude in the face of obstacles, personalities, and egos will make for an eye-opening and frequently hilarious journey.
Download or read book The Evolution of Mann written by Dan Elish and published by Concord Theatricals. This book was released on 2019 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Evolution of Mann follows Henry Mann, a thirty-something-year-old single New Yorker eager to settle down… or so he thinks. After receiving an invitation to his ex-fiancée’s wedding, Henry and his lesbian roommate embark on a quest to find his soulmate, his perfect date.
Download or read book The Complete Book of 1900s Broadway Musicals written by Dan Dietz and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-07-15 with total page 663 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Broadway musicals of the 1900s saw the emergence of George M. Cohan and his quintessentially American musical comedies which featured contemporary American stories, ragtime-flavored songs, and a tongue-in-cheek approach to musical comedy conventions. But when the Austrian import The Merry Widow opened in 1907, waltz-driven operettas became all the rage. In The Complete Book of 1900s Broadway Musicals, Dan Dietz surveys every single book musical that opened during the decade. Each musical has its own entry which features the following: Plot summary Cast members Creative team Song lists Opening and closing dates Number of performances Critical commentary Film adaptations, recordings, and published scripts, when applicable Numerous appendixes include a chronology of book musicals by season; chronology of revues; chronology of revivals of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas; a selected discography; filmography; published scripts; Black musicals; long and short runs; and musicals based on comic strips. The most comprehensive reference work on Broadway musicals of the 1900s, this book is an invaluable and significant resource for all scholars, historians, and fans of Broadway musicals.
Download or read book Frog Music written by Emma Donoghue and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2014-04-01 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of Room, a young French burlesque dancer living in San Francisco is ready to risk anything in order to solve her friend’s murder—but only if the killer doesn’t get her first. Summer of 1876: San Francisco is in the fierce grip of a record-breaking heat wave and a smallpox epidemic. Through the window of a railroad saloon, a young woman named Jenny Bonnet is shot dead. The survivor, her friend Blanche Beunon, is a French burlesque dancer. Over the next three days, she will risk everything to bring Jenny's murderer to justice—if he doesn't track her down first. The story Blanche struggles to piece together is one of free-love bohemians, desperate paupers, and arrogant millionaires; of jealous men, icy women, and damaged children. It's the secret life of Jenny herself, a notorious character who breaks the law every morning by getting dressed: a charmer as slippery as the frogs she hunts. In thrilling, cinematic style, Frog Music digs up a long-forgotten, never-solved crime. Full of songs that migrated across the world, Emma Donoghue's lyrical tale of love and bloodshed among lowlifes captures the pulse of a boomtown like no other. "Her greatest achievement yet . . . Emma Donoghue shows more than range with Frog Music—she shows genius." —Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life.
Download or read book Evil Dead written by George Reinblatt and published by Samuel French, Inc.. This book was released on 2010 with total page 91 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on Sam Raimi¿s 80s cult classic films, EVIL DEAD tells the tale of 5 college kids who travel to a cabin in the woods and accidentally unleash an evil force. And although it may sound like a horror, it's not! The songs are hilariously campy and the show is bursting with more farce than a Monty Python skit. EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL unearths the old familiar story: boy and friends take a weekend getaway at abandoned cabin, boy expects to get lucky, boy unleashes ancient evil spirit, friends turn into Candarian Demons, boy fights until dawn to survive. As musical mayhem descends upon this sleepover in the woods, ¿camp¿ takes on a whole new meaning with uproarious numbers like ¿All the Men in my Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons,¿ ¿Look Who¿s Evil Now¿ and ¿Do the Necronomicon.¿
Download or read book How Music Works written by David Byrne and published by Crown. This book was released on 2017-05-02 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • David Byrne’s incisive and enthusiastic look at the musical art form, from its very inceptions to the influences that shape it, whether acoustical, economic, social, or technological—now updated with a new chapter on digital curation. “How Music Works is a buoyant hybrid of social history, anthropological survey, autobiography, personal philosophy, and business manual”—The Boston Globe Utilizing his incomparable career and inspired collaborations with Talking Heads, Brian Eno, and many others, David Byrne taps deeply into his lifetime of knowledge to explore the panoptic elements of music, how it shapes the human experience, and reveals the impetus behind how we create, consume, distribute, and enjoy the songs, symphonies, and rhythms that provide the backbeat of life. Byrne’s magnum opus uncovers thrilling realizations about the redemptive liberation that music brings us all.
Download or read book The Gig written by Douglas J. Cohen and published by Samuel French, Inc.. This book was released on 2000 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book At the End of Everything written by Marieke Nijkamp and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2022-01-25 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Is Where It Ends comes another heartbreaking, emotional and timely page-turner that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The Hope Juvenile Treatment Center is ironically named. No one has hope for the delinquent teenagers who have been exiled there; the world barely acknowledges that they exist. Then the guards at Hope start acting strange. And one day...they don't show up. But when the teens band together to make a break from the facility, they encounter soldiers outside the gates. There's a rapidly spreading infectious disease outside, and no one can leave their houses or travel without a permit. Which means that they're stuck at Hope. And this time, no one is watching out for them at all. As supplies quickly dwindle and a deadly plague tears through their ranks, the group has to decide whom among them they can trust and figure out how they can survive in a world that has never wanted them in the first place. Also by Marieke Nijkamp: This Is Where It Ends Even If We Break Before I Let Go Praise for Marieke Nijkamp: "Immersive and captivating. Thrilling in every sense of the word."—Karen M. McManus, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One of Us is Lying on Even If We Break "With exceptional handling of everything from mental illness to guilt and a riveting, magic realist narrative, this well wrought, haunting novel will stick with readers long after the final page."—Booklist on Before I Let Go *STARRED REVIEW* "A compelling, brutal story of an unfortunately all-too familiar situation: a school shooting. Nijkamp portrays the events thoughtfully, recounting fifty-four intense minutes of bravery, love, and loss."—BookRiot on This Is Where It Ends
Download or read book Disco s Out Murder s In written by Heath Mattioli and published by Feral House. This book was released on 2015-10-19 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Famous for its revolutionary aspects in musical, political, sexual identity and consumerist ideas, punk rock also has its lesser-known gangster ethos as well, explained here by players in the various punk gangs. The Los Angeles, Orange County, and South Bay punk scenes, populated by blue collar kids who responded to the violence and aggression of punk songs and shows. A number of them formed punk gangs that got into beatings, drug dealing and murder. Among them, no gang was more notorious than La Mirada Punks, or LMP. Says LMP chieftain Frank the Shank after getting arrested by police for murder: "After having my hands in so much bloodshed over the years, I most certainly had it coming. I deserved whatever I got." Unexpectedly Frank was bailed out from prison by his father's friend, a mob gangster. "Too many people died at the hands of punk rock violence," said Frank. "I got lucky, some didn't. As an ultra-violent punk rock gangster, I admit my part in ruining the scene. L.A. punk was a magical moment of youth expression like no other. And the gangs ruined punk rock. I still have people telling me today that they quit punk because of LMP. I dig graves at a small cemetery just outside Los Angeles. What else would you expect for Frank the Shank?" Cover illustration by the renowned Raymond Pettibon.
Download or read book Singing and Dancing to The Book of Mormon written by Marc Edward Shaw and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-04-27 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most successful shows in Broadway history, The Book of Mormon broke box office records when it debuted in 2011 and received nine Tony awards, including Best Musical. A collaboration between Trey Parker and Matt Stone (creators of the show South Park) and Robert Lopez (Avenue Q), the show was a critical success, cited for both its religious irreverence and sendup of musical traditions. In Singing and Dancing to The Book of Mormon: Critical Essays on the Broadway Musical, Marc Edward Shaw and Holly Welker have assembled a collection that examines this cultural phenomenon from a variety of perspectives. Contributors to this volume address such questions as: What made the musical such a remarkable success? In what ways does the show utilize established musical theatre traditions and comic tropes, but still create something new? What religious and cultural buttons does the work push? What artistic and social boundaries—and the transgressions thereof—give the work its edge? Another focus in this volume is the official and unofficial Mormon reactions to the musical. Because the coeditors and several of the contributors have ties to the Mormon community, they offer unique perspectives on the musical’s finer points about Mormon doctrine. Beyond the obvious appeal to theatre devotees, Singing and Dancing to The Book of Mormon will be of interest to scholars of religion, sociology, theatre, and popular culture.
Download or read book Clue written by Galen Blum and published by Samuel French, Inc.. This book was released on 1997 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Musical comedy Book by Peter DePietro. Music by Galen Blum, Wayne Barker and Vinnie Martucci. Lyrics by Tom Chiodo. Based on the Parker Brothers' Board Game. Characters: 5male, 3female Unit set. The internationally popular game is now a fun filled musical which brings the world's best know suspects to life and invites the audience to help solve the mystery: who killed Mr. Boddy, in what room and with what weapon. The audience receives forms to help
Download or read book Between the Lines written by Jodi Picoult and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-06-25 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Told in their separate voices, sixteen-year-old Prince Oliver, who wants to break free of his fairy-tale existence, and fifteen-year-old Delilah, a loner obsessed with Prince Oliver and the book in which he exists, work together to seek his freedom.
Download or read book The Complete Book of 2010s Broadway Musicals written by Dan Dietz and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-09-10 with total page 533 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume contains detailed information about every musical that opened on Broadway from 2010 through the end of 2019. This book discusses the decade’s major successes, notorious failures, and musicals that closed during their pre-Broadway tryouts. In addition to including every hit and flop that debuted during the decade, this book highlights revivals and personal-appearance revues.
Download or read book The Indie Band Survival Guide written by Randy Chertkow and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 2008-08-05 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Indie Band Survival Guide (2008 edition) is a tremendous resource for musicians looking to record, distribute, market, and sell their music for less than most rock stars spend on green M&M's. Musicians and web gurus Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan cover every step of the process. With nothing but creative talent and the Web, they've gotten tens of thousands of fans for their band, in addition to being hired to write music for film, television, theater, and other media.
Download or read book Lizard Music written by Daniel Pinkwater and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2017-08-15 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An ALA Notable Book Kids ages 9-12 will “delight in [the] oddness” of this Home Alone-style tale set in the 1970s—from a prolific children’s author who captures “a magic that’s not like anyone else’s” (Neil Gaiman). With Victor’s parents out of town, he is free to investigate the mysterious lizard musicians who have recently appeared on TV . . . Things Victor loves: pizza with anchovies, grape soda, B movies aired at midnight, the evening news. And with his parents off at a resort and his older sister shirking her babysitting duties, Victor has plenty of time to indulge himself and to try a few things he’s been curious about. Exploring the nearby city of Hogboro, he runs into a curious character known as the Chicken Man (a reference to his companion, an intelligent hen named Claudia who lives under his hat). The Chicken Man speaks brilliant nonsense, but he seems to be hip to the lizard musicians (real lizards, not men in lizard suits) who’ve begun appearing on Victor’s television after the broadcast of the late-late movie. Are the lizards from outer space? From “other space”? Together Victor and the Chicken Man, guided by the able Claudia, journey to the lizards’ floating island, a strange and fantastic place that operates with an inspired logic of its own.
Download or read book Ever After written by Barry Singer and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-09-15 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by Barry Singer—one of contemporary musical theater's most authoritative chroniclers—Ever After was originally published in 2003 as a history of the previous twenty-five years in musical theater, on and off Broadway. This new edition extends the narrative, taking readers from 2004 to the present. The book revisits every new musical that has opened since the last edition, with Barry Singer once again as guide. Before Ever After appeared in 2003, no book had addressed the recent past in musical theater history—an era Singer describes as "ever after musical theater's many golden ages." Derived significantly from Singer's writings about musical theater for the New York Times, New York Magazine, and The New Yorker, Ever After captured that era in its entirety, from the opening of The Act on Broadway in October 1977 to the opening of Avenue Q Off-Broadway in March 2003. This new edition brings Ever After up to date, from Wicked, through The Book of Mormon, to Hamilton and beyond. Once again, this the first book to cover this new, pre-pandemic age of the Broadway musical. And, once again, utilizing his recent writing about musical theater for HuffPost and Playbill, Barry Singer's viewpoint is comprehensive and absolutely unique.
Download or read book Sondheim on Music written by Mark Eden Horowitz and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-03-13 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From his early work as lyricist for West Side Story to acclaimed creations such as A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park with George, and Sweeney Todd, Stephen Sondheim is widely regarded as the most important figure in musical theater since the second half of the 20th century. Who better to discuss this prolific artist’s work than the master himself? Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Decisions is a collection of interviews conducted by Mark Eden Horowitz, senior music specialist in the music division of the Library of Congress. In these guided conversations, Sondheim expounds in great depth and detail on his craft. As a natural teacher, thoughtful and opinionated, Sondheim discusses the art of musical composition, lyric writing, the collaborative process of musical theater, and how he thinks about his own work. The entire scope of Sondheim’s career is covered here, in which Sondheim’s greatest works are discussed—from Passion, Assassins, Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, and Pacific Overtures to A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Merrily We Roll Along, Company, Follies, Anyone Can Whistle, and A Little Night Music. Sondheim even provides thoughts about the film adaptations of his works, such as Sweeney Todd. The book also features an entire chapter on Bounce, the previous incarnation of his latest musical, Road Show. Preserving the essential elements of the previous volumes, this edition includes all of the interviews—verbatim—and features a revised introduction and a postlude with an additional conversation. Finally in paperback, Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Decisions, The Less Is More Edition is a must-have for fans of these creative genius.
