Broadway Yearbook, 1999-2000: A Relevant and Irreverent Record

by Steven Suskin

Overview

Broadway Season 1999-2000 is a unique and detailed guide to the theatrical year presenting 46 different shows. The volume features a comprehensive discussion of every show that opened on Broadway during the 1999-2000 season as well as several non-Broadway productions of importance or general interest. Each entry is accompanied by credits and cast lists, scorecards summarizing overall critical reception for each show, and a recap of each show's financial performance.
A new kind of theatre annual, this distinctive volume discusses what the shows are actually like (instead of merely relying on plot synopses or photographs). It is an interpretive record, featuring not only dates and names but also the stories behind the statistics. Opening night title pages illustrate each show discussion. Appendices include a roundup of the season's major awards, memorable performances of the year, obituaries, long run leaders, shows still running from prior seasons, scheduled shows that never reached Broadway, and a comprehensive index.
Steven Suskin has provided a relevant and irreverent record of the year's memorable high points (and low points). Written from an insider's perspective, the book is knowledgeable, intriguing, provocative, and entertaining.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195165555
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	01/28/2003
Series:	Broadway Yearbook Series
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 5.60(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Steven Suskin has written extensively about the Broadway theatre in books, magazines, and on the Internet. A long-time theatrical manager and producer, his books include Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway's Major Composers (OUP, 1999), Opening Night on Broadway: A Critical Quotebook of the Musical Theatre, 1965-1981 (1990), and More Opening Nights on Broadway: A Critical Quotebook of the Musical Theatre, 1965-1981 (1997).

Editorial Reviews

"For ages now I have been looking for the theater equivalent of longtime New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael....My search seems to over, as evidenced by Steven Suskin's remarkably detailed and addicting new book, Broadway Yearbook 1999-2000, an invaluable record of that most interesting theater season.... [Suskin writes] with unmatched aplomb and a distinctive voice not heard since the heyday of New York's best writers.... Each show is covered in much depth, with information about past productions if applicable, a copy of the inside of the Playbill for each production, whether the show fell into the red or black monetarily, and Suskins own comments about their success as Broadway offerings What sets Suskin apart from his contemporaries is his unflinching honesty."—Matinee Magazine

"Broadway Yearbook is a must for theater buffs....It delivers on the publisher's promise of a book that gives readers 'the facts, the dish, and a richly textured sense of what people saw, heard, and felt in New York theaters from June to May.' Suskin is a writer who has also worked in the theater, so he knows what goes on behind the scenes of a Broadway production....Suskin balances criticism with reporting in his account of each 1999-2000 show, and the book is full of dead-on judgments of the good, the bad and the ugly."—The Connecticut Post

From the Publisher