I Got The Show Right Here: The Amazing, True Story of How an Obscure Brooklyn Horn Player Became the Last Great Broadway Showman

by Cy Feuer, Ken Gross

Overview

Guys&Dolls...The Boyfriend...How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying...Can-Can... These are just a few of the many Broadway shows produced by the legendary Cy Feuer, who, in partnership with the late Ernest H. Martin, brought to life many of America's most enduring musicals.
Cy Feuer was at the center of these creations, as well as the films based on two of Broadway's most exceptional musicals, Cabaret and A Chorus Line. He was the man in charge, the one responsible for putting everything together, and -- almost more important -- for holding it together.
Now, at age ninety-two, as Cy Feuer looks back on the remarkable career he had on Broadway and in Hollywood, the stories he has to tell of the people he worked with are fabulously rich and entertaining.

• There's Bob Fosse, a perfectionist with whom Feuer did battle over the filming of the movie Cabaret.
  
• There's Frank Loesser, the brilliant and explosive composer of Guys&Dolls, Where's Charley?, and How to Succeed...
  
• There's Liza Minnelli, star of both the movie Cabaret and the Broadway musical The Act, whose offstage activities threatened to disrupt the show.
  
• There's the contentious George S. Kaufman, the librettist and director whose ego was almost as great as his talent.
  

Add to the list such glamorous figures as Cole Porter, Julie Andrews, Abe Burrows, Gwen Verdon, John Steinbeck, Martin Scorsese, and George Balanchine, and you have a sense of the unbeatable cast of characters who populate this fabulous story of a young trumpet player from Brooklyn who became musical director for the Republic Pictures film studio, then feverishly tackled Broadway, back when "putting on a show" did not require the support of major corporations, and when dreams of overnight success really did have a chance of coming true.
Funny, witty, and immensely entertaining, I Got the Show Right Here is a treat for anyone who loves show business, a story wonderfully told by one of Broadway's greatest and most talented producers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780743236836
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	05/11/2010
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Cy Feuer, who will never retire, is today the Chairman of the Board of The League of American Theaters & Producers. He lives in Manhattan with his wife, Posy.

Read an Excerpt

Prologue

I'm five feet five. Not what you would describe as a giant. I used to be taller. But that's what happens when you hit ninety. You lose some bone mass. You also lose some memory. And you lose all your friends. All the people who knew you when you were putting together what have become classic Broadway shows -- Guys & Dolls, Where's Charley?, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Can-Can, Silk Stockings... They're all dead, the people who remember me as five feet seven. A really big man.

I'm not complaining. Yeah, well, maybe I am. My wife, Posy, and I think of ourselves as being alone on an island. Where the hell did everyone go? Frank Loesser's gone, and Abe Burrows and George Abbott and Billy Rose and Cole Porter and Bob Fosse and Ray Bolger and Ernie Martin. Especially Ernie. He was my partner. He knew the story. And it's a pretty good story, how I got to be a big-shot Broadway producer. There's nobody left who knows the whole story, not even me.

It's not like you have a whole, fully wound memory that unspools when you try to let it play. It's more like a broken reel. Scenes pop up on the screen, incidents float loose in changeable decades -- I don't know when the hell some things happened. I remember playing sandlot polo in Hollywood, but was that before the war? When was I in Paris with Fosse trying to sign up Max Schell, was that during Kennedy? When did Sam Goldwyn stand by the barbecue pit, posing with that mitt on his hand, making believe he was cooking, when the butler really handled the food? Was that after he bought Guys & Dolls?

It's work, getting it all straight.

There's one moment during the day when I almost get it right. Every night I get drunk. At my age, it only takes one drink. I really look forward to that drink. I used to favor wine, flattering myself that I could appreciate bouquet and all the rest; now I find that I like the taste of whiskey. I sip it, sit back, and feel the blood rush through my head, blowing away the dust, clearing it up...

Copyright © 2003 by Cy Feuer and Ken Gross

Editorial Reviews

Feuer describes himself as a self-driven Jewish youngster from Brooklyn whose ambition to be a first-rate musician got him through Juilliard and into a career as a film composer and arranger before the awful truth about his music (''It was second-rate’’) caught up with him. But if he lacked great talent himself, he could spot the fire in others — and he knew exactly how to light it. Not such a modest talent, after all. — Marilyn Stasio

The New York Times

What made Feuer so good at what he did? He tells us that "I couldn't follow the expected rules, play the predictable game for the sake of ease or expectations," that he "was on fire with ambition," that he is "by nature an optimist [with] a lot of confidence, a lot of energy," all of which doubtless was important, but what seems to have mattered most is "devotion to detail and quality." He and Martin called themselves ditch-diggers because they specialized in "a very exotic form of manual labor" that "required a level of activity and attention that robbed the other facets of my life." He had a long, happy marriage and two children, but he "believed completely that I had no choice but to immerse myself up to my elbows in my work." Precisely how his wife and sons felt about this is not recorded, but one thing is certain: The shows were fantastic. — Jonathan Yardley

The Washington Post

From his birth in Brooklyn in 1911, Feuer seemed destined to become a legend in his own time. In this rollicking and rambunctious memoir, Broadway producer Feuer reminisces about his mother's dragging him to bandleaders and trumpeters, touting her son's musical talent. When his father died, Feuer's trumpet playing had to provide for the family; at 15 he was bringing home money from weekend club dates. After he finished Julliard, Feuer made the rounds with big bands, playing venues such as the Roxy and Radio City Music Hall. Following World War II, Feuer and Ernie Martin formed a theatrical partnership and began to produce Broadway musicals. With curmudgeonly affection, Feuer recalls his greatest successes-Guys and Dolls, Can-Can, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Cabaret-and the stories surrounding them. He vividly re-creates Bob Fosse's temper tantrums, Cole Porter's obsession with finding the right lyric, and Liza Minnelli's staunch defense of her then-lover, Martin Scorsese. (Feuer considers today's Broadway musicals sentimental and not very deep.) Poking fun at himself and his foibles as often as he recalls the shortcomings of others, Feuer offers a tantalizing no-holds barred look at the halcyon days of the Broadway musical and the people who made them come to life on the stage. (Mar.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Feuer, with partner Ernie Martin, produced some of Broadway's greatest musical hits, including Where's Charley?, Guys and Dolls, Can-Can, and How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, as well as the film versions of Cabaret and A Chorus Line. Over his 50-plus-year career, he has worked with such entertainment legends as Abe Burrows, George Kaufman, Cole Porter, Bob Fosse, and Liza Minnelli. Speaking to the reader through these memoirs, Feuer comes across as a likable curmudgeon who often relied on instinct to do whatever was necessary to save a show from disaster. He learned from experience what worked, risking friendships in the process. Filled with fascinating tidbits about show business and the people Feuer met and worked with, this nostalgic trip down the Great White Way from the 1940s to the 1970s is entertaining reading. Recommended for theater arts collections in public and academic libararies.-Howard Miller, Rosary H.S. Lib., St. Louis

Library Journal

Breezy, upbeat memoir from the impresario who produced Broadway musicals like Guys and Dolls and Can-Can, as well as the film version of Cabaret. Born in 1911 to immigrant parents in Brooklyn, Feuer became a trumpet player with the encouragement of his mother. Actually, this enthusiastic Boy Scout wanted to play the bugle, but Mom thought the trumpet would be a more practical instrument. And she was right, because after the death of his father (manager of a Yiddish theater on Second Avenue), the family needed money, and Feuer quit school to play with various pick-up bands that provided music for political campaigns. Next he was accepted at Juilliard and soon began making big money playing with club bands. And on to California, where he arranged music for the movies, as well as making lots of good and useful friends like Frank Loesser, Jule Styne, and Susan Hayward. The pay was good and the life easy—he learned to play polo and tennis—but Feuer could never entirely forget that Hollywood was the land of painted sunsets and rocks you could move. Once his service making WWII training films was over, he was ready for more satisfying work than the studios provided. He moved back to New York and with business partner Ernie Martin produced musicals that were not (just) vehicles for star performers but had real content and logical storylines. Feuer vividly recalls shows like Where’s Charley?, Guys and Dolls, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, while giving a crash course in the often frustrating business of entertainment. He tells readers how to improve a production in out-of-town tryouts and what it was like to work with Ray Bolger, Liza Minnelli, George Kaufman, ColePorter, Bob Fosse, and a host of others. He also wryly recalls such flops as the movie version of A Chorus Line. Entertaining, informative, and shrewdly perceptive. Agent: Al Zuckerman/Writers House

Kirkus Reviews