Second Act Trouble: Behind the Scenes at Broadway's Big Musical Bombs
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.34 (784 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1557836310 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 400 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-04-08 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
. A long-time theatrical manager and producer, he lives in New York. Steven Suskin has written a dozen books on theatre and music
. The earliest musical documented is Flying Colors (1932), the latest The Red Shoes (1993), with the majority from the '60s and '70s and no examples from the AIDS-torn '80s. The two exceptions are William Gibson's deeply felt excerpt about the posthumous musicalization of his close friend Clifford Odets's Golden Boy, an essay so literarily superior that Suskin refrains from his standard in-essay editorializing, and the book's grand finale, Lewis H. From Publishers Weekly What makes a musical go wrong? Theatrical manager and producer Suskin (Show Tunes; Broadway Yearbook s
voracious reader said "Kelly", Ya Coulda Made Us Proud!. A look back at many contemporary accounts of Broadway musicals that didn't fare all that well. Granted, it is a book one can skim through to find certain shows. A few (such as "Golden Boy" with Sammy Davis, Jr) I felt shouldn't have been included. But some of these shows REALLY had problems (i.e., "Breakfast at Tiffany's"; "Dude: the Highway Life"; "Kelly", et al). Some of the stories of them read better than others, so essentially this book is a mixed bag. Still, Broadway musical aficionados will probably enjoy it.. Closing Notices On Closing Notices Marc Flanagan On 45th Street in Manhattan there is a restaurant that is favored by theatre folk and playgoers alike, Joe Alllen's is it's name and on their walls are theatrical posters, not unusual for the locale, being in the heart of the theatre district, what's notable about the collection of posters is that all those displayed were huge flops. Steven Suskin's, "Second Act Trouble" takes this concept (theatrical failures) and illuminates how once promising shows turn into failures. The collection covers twenty or so Broadway shows(some never made it to The Great White Way) that flopped, losing all or most of their investment. The articles, publ. 5th Street in Manhattan there is a restaurant that is favored by theatre folk and playgoers alike, Joe Alllen's is it's name and on their walls are theatrical posters, not unusual for the locale, being in the heart of the theatre district, what's notable about the collection of posters is that all those displayed were huge flops. Steven Suskin's, "Second Act Trouble" takes this concept (theatrical failures) and illuminates how once promising shows turn into failures. The collection covers twenty or so Broadway shows(some never made it to The Great White Way) that flopped, losing all or most of their investment. The articles, publ. J. Earles said Little Battles to the Death. William Goldman in his watershed book about Broadway called The Season, wrote that every Broadway show is a series of "little battles to the death". Here in Mr Steven Suskin's book, we get lowdown on the skirmishes and the all-out battles that resulted in some of Broadway's most outrageous productions.It's actors vs. directors, directors vs. composers, and everybody vs. the producers as we are taken backstage to learn why a show like Jerry Lewis' Hellzapoppin turned into such a fiasco.This is not a newly written tome. Suskin has gathered a collection of contemporary articles from magazines, newspapers, autobiographies, and biographie
The infamous shows featured include Mack & Mabel; Breakfast at Tiffany's; The Act; Dude; Golden Boy; Hellzapoppin'; Nick and Nora; Seesaw; Kelly; and How Now, Dow Jones .. Suskin has compiled and annotated long-forgotten, first-person accounts of 25 Broadway musicals that stubbornly went awry. (Applause Books). No mere vanity productions, these; you can't have a big blockbuster of failure, it seems, without the participation of Broadway's biggest talents. Contributions come from such respected writers as Patricia Bosworth, Mel Gussow, Lehman Engel, William Gibson, Lewis H. If Broadway's triumphant musical hits are exhilarating, the backstage tales of Broadway failures are tantalizing soap operas in miniature. Caught in the stranglehold of tryout turmoil are Richard Rodgers, Jule Styne, Jerry Herman, Cy Coleman, Charles Strouse, John Kander, Mel Brooks, and