There’s no people like show people to take you behind the scenes [of Broadway theater]. The Frommers haven’t written a history of Broadway. They’ve woven one from the recollections of an all-star cast of more than one hundred actors, directors, producers, designers, choreographers, publicists, authors, composers, and even critics.
The San Francisco Examiner
In a book brimming with wonderful Broadway anecdotes and stories that have over time been transformed into legends, a host of Broadway insiders are allowed to tell their own stories in their own words. The authors, a husband-and-wife team specializing in oral history, have turned on their tape recorders and gotten out of the way; the result is a fascinating look at the action behind all the glitter.
For those of you who love talkin' Broadway ... you'll find out what everyone, from Billie Allen to Jerry Zaks, has to say about their experiences on Broadway. Actors, dancers, musicians, playwrights, columnists sit around, talking, and telling what "their" Broadway was and is like. From the pages of the New York Post to the little bar at Sardi's to the rehearsal stages and dressing rooms of your favorite theater, you'll get new insights on how it works and what makes Broadway what it is. Wonderfully informative and a truly great read.
It Happened on Broadway is a collection of interviews with 107 Broadway luminaries, including Carol Channing, Betty Buckley, Joel Grey, John Kander, Fred Ebbs, James Hammerstein (son of Oscar), Mary Rodgers (daughter of Richard) and Kitty Carlisle Hart (widow of Moss). It tells the story of Broadway from the point of view of those who were deeply involved in its development as the centre of American theatre. It takes us behind the public faces and into the private thoughts and feelings of the stars, writers, composers, directors, producers, designers, press agents, playwrights, and even the restauranteurs (Vincent Sardi Jr. is there, too). It tells about the great successes (and some of the spectacular flops). It reveals much about the great writers - Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Moss Hart, Irving Berlin, Cy Coleman - and the performers - the portrait of Carol Channing in her own words is stunning. And we see the great directors and choreographers - my own favourite, Bob Fosse, is talked about at length - through the eyes of those who worked with them.
More than one hundred actors, directors, choreographers, producers, composers, lyricists, and playwrights have contributed to this deliciously enjoyable compilation of material. They all bring us some of the most interesting experiences and insights about the Broadway theater of recent years. One wonders how the Frommers managed to persuade so many luminaries to share their tales.
"Though husband and wife team Myrna Katz and Harvey Frommer are professors at Dartmouth, this oral history would be better off passed around backstage than in the classroom. Includes interviews with Kitty Carlisle Hart, Linda Lavin, George C. Wolfe, everyone else you'd expect, and a few you wouldn't."
It Happened On Broadway is nothing short of living, breathing theatre
history. Carol Channing's first appearance on stage at a grammar school in San
Francisco; Patricia Neal's subsistence jobs cutting pies and scooping ice cream
while waiting for her career to bloom (which really didn't take all that long
by today's standards); the advent of the Theatre Guild; Celeste Holm and John
Raitt on creating the grand-daddy of musical theatre, Oklahoma; Kim Hunter on
Marlon Brando; Donna McKechnie on Michael Bennett;Linda Lavin on Neil Simon
and Len Cariou on Stephen Sondheim, it's all in there.
It Happened On Broadway is told by those who have spent the past 50 years in the trenches, the actors, designers, press agents, choreographers, directors, and even their offspring. With vintage photos, drawings, posters and Playbills the Frommer's provide us with a look at theatre history from a time when $1.50 would buy you a movie and six or eight vaudeville acts to the impact of the AIDS crisis on the theatre community to the vast corporate culture now responsible for many of today's Broadway shows. An invaluable and engrossing book for anyone interested in an insiders perspective on the business of the Great White Way.
A chorus of more than 100 voices--including stars, celebrities, producers, costume designers, critics, sons and daughters of Broadway greats--lend this oral history of Broadway theater over the past 60 years the heady excitement of a blockbuster show. The editors, whose previous titles include It Happened in Brooklyn and It Happened in the Catskills, understand that what readers want are tales of magic and legend, but here they devote more attention to the drudgery and brute perseverance that go into every Broadway success. Following the lead of Jeff Kisseloff's oral history of television, The Box, the Frommers tell the history of the medium, rather than of individual shows and performances--though there are plenty of those represented here, too. "The first time I ever set foot on-stage was in grammar school," begins Carol Channing, the book's first speaker. The remembrances that follow--of Broadway debuts, of its richest era following WW II, of famous musicals and comedies, stars, hits and unexpected flops and a string of laments over what "Broadway no longer" is today--move so seamlessly you often have to check back to see who's speaking. Charles Durning remembers the first laugh he got on stage. John Raitt describes almost not getting to replace the lead in Oklahoma! because he couldn't fit into Alfred Drake's costume. John Lahr says his comedian father "could get a laugh on a conjunction." Interspersed with stage and backstage photos, caricatures, playbills and posters, the hundreds of magical, informative, sometimes fallacious, never boring stories the Frommers have gathered demonstrate what it took to fill those seats. (Nov.)
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
The Frommers, both professors at Dartmouth, specialize in oral histories; their other titles include It Happened in Brooklyn (LJ 11/1/93) and It Happened in the Catskills (Harcourt, 1991). Here they provide a fascinating look at Broadway from different perspectives, including interviews with actors, directors, producers, composers, lyricists, playwrights, stage managers, set designers, and critics. The authors have cast a wide net and drawn in voices from past and present. While some interviewees are noticeably missing (Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber, to name two), this book will be enjoyed by anyone who has ever been captivated by live theater, though the price may keep it off the shelves of smaller libraries.--J. Sara Paulk, Coastal Plain Regional Lib., Tifton, GA
"There's no people like show people to take you behind the scenes. The Frommers (husband and wife) haven't written a history of Broadway. They've woven one from the recollections of an all-star cast of more than 100 actors (Gwen Verdon, Joel Grey, Carol Channing, Maureen Stapleton), directors (George C. Wolfe, Jerry Zaks), producers, designers, choreographers, publicists, authors, composers and even critics....The Frommers weave a wondrous narrative from an incredibly varied chorus, all handsomely illustrated with sepia-toned photographs." -- The San Francisco Examiner, December 17, 1998
"It Happened On Broadway is a fine compendium of chat from theater greats who love talking about their careers, their shows, their lives. Written by Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer, Dartmouth University professors who specialize in oral history, the book is one that - placed on a coffee table - can be opened at any page for a bit of nostalgic pleasure. "Anyone with Broadway stars in his or her eyes will love such anecdotal material. Read it at you leisure, and enjoy your coffee." -- San Jose Mercury News, December 6, 1998
The Frommers (Growing up Jewish in America ) have gathered together the recollections (of widely varying frankness and detail) of actors, playwrights, directors, producers, designers, composers, and critics active in the evolution of theater in New York over the past seven decades.
Those who find backstage details about the theater (and more particularly about the musical theater) absorbing will very likely enjoy the often witty chat recorded here, including the widely varying, but generally warm recollections of the producers and actors who worked on many of Rodgers and Hammerstein's landmark musicals, and the musings of a number of figures, from Patricia Neal to Richard Kiley to Louise Lasser, about the manner in which they launched their careers. There are also loving but unsparing portraits of the lives and careers of such major innovators as Bob Fosse and Michael Bennett.
"There’s no people like show people to take you behind the scenes [of Broadway theater]. The Frommers haven’t written a history of Broadway. They’ve woven one from the recollections of an all-star cast of more than one hundred actors, directors, producers, designers, choreographers, publicists, authors, composers, and even critics."—The San Francisco Examiner
"It Happened on Broadway is a fine compendium of chat from theater greats who love talking about their careers, their shows, their lives."—San Jose Mercury News
"An oral history of Broadway by the people who lived it, this volume encompasses the triumphs and glorious failures, fights and betrayals, dedication and drudgery."—Ingram
