Book Description
Wicked is not just a musical, it is a phenomenon. Every week 15,000 people pack New Yorks Gershwin Theatre to see the show. The most successful musical on Broadway in 2004, Wicked is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire. It tells the story of Elphaba, the headstrong Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda, the good witch, growing up in the Land of Oz. The show has cast a spell on fans, many of whom return for second and third viewings. In 2005, the show begins an extensive tour across the United States and Canada, hitting major cities such as Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and many more. This beautifully packaged, whimsical keepsake is designed to resemble the Grimmerie, an ancient book of spells that Elphaba uses in the show. Wicked: The Grimmerie offers fans a behind-the-curtains peek at the musical, profiles of the cast and creative team, and inside stories, with full-color photographs throughout. Some of the irresistible special features include an Ozian glossary, spells, the shows libretto, an illustrated family tree, and a step-by-step look at how Elphaba gets green before each showeverything fans need to relive the Broadway experience day after day.
Customer Reviews:
Wickedly Wonderful.......2007-09-28
This is a totally wonderful book. The look, the feel, the photos....every Wicked fan will want this. Simply gorgeous.
Great keepsake of popular musical production.......2007-09-10
This is a wonderful souvenir for WICKED fans of any production. It would also be a great pre-viewing gift for anyone who has yet to see the innovative musical "prequel" to THE WIZARD OF OZ.
The Grimmerie.......2007-08-15
After just having seen "Wicked" performed live on stage, this is the perfect companion to relive the experience.
WICKED SMASH .......2007-08-13
The book was awesome and very detailed with the making of the stage play and its bio of the characters. I would highly recommend this book.
Very good!.......2007-08-01
Full libretto, huge pictures, a history of "the Wizard of Oz" from concept to book series to musical to movie... more info than I was even hoping for on "Wicked." It's a LOT like the "Rent" book, if you've seen that.
Book Description
When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch–nemesis, the mysterious witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?
Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first–class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle–class stability and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green–skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to be the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.
Download Description
Packed with e-book extras, including the original classic, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, and the Reader's Group Guide. When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only one side of the story. Meet Elphaba -- a smart, prickly, little green-skinned girl who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil. When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil? Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to be the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.
Customer Reviews:
Enigmas, akimbo, and snares, Oh My!.......2007-09-28
I liked the book because of its originality.
However, the story would flow and then get stuck in its attempt to confuse and irritate the reader into skipping over big parts of the book.
The journey of the Witch is so convoluted, that I had to back track. Enjoying this book took a lot effort. I like to be entertained when I read fiction, not work myself into a dither trying to understand where the story is going. When it gets bogged down with theories and who is who and where and when,...it is rather boring. BUT.. the parts that tell you about her childhood, schooling...is entertaining.
Horrors! Horrors!.......2007-09-23
This book was painfully disappointing. The plots meanders here and there and never fully develops. The writing is mediocre, and the book left me feeling cheated. The books sums itself up with the only funny line in it - "Horrors! Horrors!" Don't waste your time!
ONe of my favorites.......2007-09-21
For anyone who likes a little fantasy in your life this is a great book. What an interesting tale of an old classic.
Wicked is "wicked".......2007-09-20
I am not sure how this story works into a musical, but I'm sure I will be going to see the stage production of this interesting tale. Narrated to perfection, you won't want to stop listening to this story. This set of 16 CDs will keep you glued to your player. I enjoyed the story on my solo roadtrip and throughout the rest of the summer. You probably won't want to purchase this set for family listening, however, because some of the storyline becomes quite risque and sexually graphic. Great story, well told, enjoy!
Original, witty but very different from the popular musical .......2007-09-10
I saw a stage production of WICKED before reading the book. The musical had surprised me with its unique, clever spin on the classic L. Frank Baum story made into a phenominon by the 1939 movie version, so I was interested to see this source material.
Maguire has done a Herculean task in concocting this detailed story that is so innovative and yet intricately tied to the Baum series. The details and politicizing eventually slow down the storytelling in third quarter of the book, but rejuvenates in time for the climax. But make no mistake, this is a very different & more adult version of Elphaba's life story than bounces across the Broadway stage.
Book Description
In classic Hollywood tradition, Farley Granger, a high school senior, was discovered by Sam Goldwyn's casting director in an off-Hollywood Boulevard play. Granger describes how he learned his craft as he went on to star in a number of films, giving an insider's view of working with Hitchcock on Strangers on a Train and Rope, Luchino Visconti on Senso, and Nick Ray on They Live by Night.
He is eloquent about his bisexuality and tells of affairs with Patricia Neal, Arthur Laurents, Shelley Winters, Leonard Bernstein and Ava Gardner and his involvement with Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, and Tyrone Power.
Granger recreates his legendary struggle to break his contract with Goldwyn. He had to buy his way out to work on Broadway. He describes the early days of live television and working with Julie Harris, Christopher Plummer, Helen Hayes, and Claire Bloom. He captures the thrill of acting on the stage with Janice Rule, June Havoc, Larry Hagman, Barbara Cook, and the National Repertory Theatre, where his determination paid off with an OBIE for his work in Tally & Son.
Granger's delightful and elegant memoir captures the extravangance of Hollywood's Golden Age-and provides colorful portraits of many of its major players.
Customer Reviews:
GOSSIP, GAYS AND THE GLORY DAZE OF YESTERYEAR.......2007-07-28
There's an aging celebrity in Sondheim's musical Follies whose anthem is "I'm Still Here." Well, Farley Granger is one of those stars who we all thought left the party, but he, too, is still here, and he has a new autobiography---more of a series of reminiscences---called Include Me Out to prove it. Written with his long-time partner, Robert Calhoun, the title refers to a Goldwynism, that is, a malapropism created by the legendary movie producer. In Granger's situation, it refers to a decision to get off the Hollywood merry-go-round and go after life, and a level of happiness, that was simply impossible in his day and age in Tinseltown. Although there may be a degree of ingeniousness here (and a major error recounting Boston history), the book is long on charm, anecdotes and fuzzy warmth. And, frankly, there is such a list of sexual congress with such a variety of genders, that one wonders where he found the time for acting. Two minor masterpieces in America (both directed by Hitchcock), Rope and Strangers on a Train, and the truly magnificent Luchino Visconti's Senso, in Italy, should make for the foundation of a spectacular career. Granger was tall, dark and handsome, groomed by several studios, yet he suggests he walked away from it all. His sexuality at the time may well have been a problem, as after his initial explosion of successes, his career dwindled to some truly rotten films in Europe, a fair amount of television guest shots, a couple of less than successful runs at Broadway, and finally, in the soap As the World Turns. There are great anecdotes here, lovingly told, about the likes of Shelley Winters, Ava Gardner, Count Visconti, Danny Kaye, Sam Goldwyn, Eva Le Gallienne (with whom Granger did two national tours) and our own, Julie Harris. Some of the stories ring truer than others, yet the love he has for Calhoun seems genuine, and his long and eventful life makes for fascinating reading of another time and another place.
Mildly entertaining.......2007-07-01
In ORIGINAL STORY Arthur Laurents describes his homosexual relationship with Farley Granger in a way that indicates that Granger was important to him, but that Granger was very concerned about his public image and was not really willing to live an openly gay life with him. He describes Shelley Winters as Granger's "beard." A decade later, Granger has written his own memoir, but it is a very different kind of book than Laurents's. I suppose that's to be expected since Laurents is a fairly major American playwright of the 20th Century and Granger is a fairly minor movie star of the same period. Granger's book is a rather typical actor's memoir, trying to put a positive spin on a career that must have been frustrating to actually experience. The good thing about Granger's book is that it demonstrates the basic passivity of an actor's life. He never really DOES anything. Things just sort of happen. He starts his career as a movie star in major films like NORTH STAR, ROPE and STRANGERS ON A TRAIN and slowly slides to Broadway flops, foreign movies, touring in repertory theatre, episodic television, soap operas and off-Broadway. He has very little control over which direction his career goes. He claims to have had affairs with several screen goddesses along the way, including Ava Gardner, but none of them is alive to refute him. The way he tells it, Shelley Winters was no mere "beard," but a genuinely serious romantic interest who was also a friend. Whatever is true, she comes across as quite a character and I enjoyed all the parts about her. He does mention his affair with Laurents, although his version is somewhat different. He claims that they broke up because he caught Laurents being more than friendly with a delivery boy. I think Laurents's version has more credibility. He also mentions other homosexual relationships, including a fling with Leonard Bernstein. But my feeling here was that there were a lot of omissions and half-truths, not that it really matters. The parts of the book I found most interesting were the sections dealing with making the movie SENSO in Italy with Luchino Visconti and the out-of-town tryout of the ill-fated musical, FIRST IMPRESSIONS. Overall, this is a mildly entertaining memoir and not a bad book for the beach or a long airplane flight.
Rather dull.......2007-06-27
After reading many celebrity bios, this one needed work. He makes rather stupid blunders in his bio. For instance, he mentions movies and stars at the Fox studio when he arrived and what were being being filmed at the time. Some of these titles were filmed at MGM !! When he descibes how much he started to love show music he mentions CAROSEUL in the early 40's. The play and album were done in the late 40'S. A few other errors in time are also noted. Since he is in his 80's, perhaps his memory is failing. I never thought he was all that talented. His ego seems bigger than the talent. He really just skirts his sexual life and one never really knows what his exact relationship is with his so-called partner. He never mentions his parents or what happened to them after he leaves them. Are they still living? Probably not, but he didn't even mention their death. After all, good or bad, they WERE his parents and deserve some kind of note as to their fate. Good thing he turned down THE EGYPTIAN as he would have really made it more of a bore than it was. What I did enjoy were some of his slants on the people he worked with and why and why not he liked them. He states that certain actors/actresses were difficult to work with. Perhaps they could have said the same about him!! There are TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY.
Totally enjoyable.......2007-06-05
This "tell all" book from a truly talented guy is fun, interesting and a really good read. Farley reveals some of the truths of being a star in the 40's and 50's and his rejection of the mainstream for someting more creative.
excellent.......2007-05-26
it was great to read this book,as i have always wanted to know where farley granger went to as all off a sudden he was on broadway
Product Description
Over 720 songs from over 240 Broadway shows! Recently revised to include hits from Martin Guerre, Rent, Smokey Joe's Cafe Sunset Boulevard Victor/Victoria and more! This is the definitive collection of Broadway music, featuring song title index, show title index, composer & lyricist index, and a synopsis of each show. Songs include: Ain't Misbehavin' All I Ask of You Another Op'nin' Another Show As Long As He Needs Me Bewitched Cabaret Camelot Castle on a Cloud Consider Yourself Day by Day Do-Re-Mi Don't Cry for Me Argentina Edelweiss Everything's Coming Up Roses Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye Hello, Dolly! How are Things in Glocca Morra How High the Moon The Impossible Dream The Lady is a Tramp Last Night of the World Oklahoma Ol' Man River On My Own People Seasons of Love Send In the Clowns Starlight Express Tell Me on Sunday Tell Me to Go Tomorrow Unexpected Song Waitin' for the Light to Shine What I Did for Love With One Look You'll Never Walk Alone and many more! H240046
Customer Reviews:
Ultimate Broadway Fake Book.......2007-01-30
Great! Found the book to be very helpful in finding the music I have been looking for.
Great resource !.......2006-03-27
Although like a lot of Hal Leonard books the chords can be a bit "commercial" and the layout lacks that professional fake book lead sheet style that makes it more comfortable to use on a bandstand, I have to say that this is an incredibly useful resource of showtunes - - bordering on voluminous.
About 95% of the tunes the gigging Jazz musician plays comes from showtunes, but few Jazz musicians are willing to openly come out and say, "I play showtunes," that said, to Jazz performers looking for those undertapped standards missed in the REAL BOOKS, this book is a gem... To vocalists, cabaret performers and working piano lounge players consider this a lifetime repoitoire that can fit in a computer carrying bag (minus the computer.)
As for the chords... most of them work quite well with solo piano (especially some of the diminished passing chords and stuff like that) but for ensemble playing a combination of ear and pen and pencil will be necessary.
Tunes are written in reasonable keys, have lyrics and range from classic Cole Porter/Richard Rogers/George Gershwin Broadway to some of the newer stuff (circa A Chorus Line, Jesus Christ Superst, etc.) And as an added bonus, this well indexed fake book even includes a section where the musicals that the tunes came from get brief bios... not only education, but great if you'd like to have a cute, informed Michael Feinsteinish way of showing that you know ABOUT the tunes.
Spiral binding makes the book easy to use on a piano... but weight will be an issue with music stands, and in times these spiral books fall apart so my suggestion is to buy the book and put copies of frequently played tunes in clear sheet binders.
So far, thrilled with this purchase !
About as good as you can reasonably hope for.......2005-10-05
I've always been a broadway buff, and I bought this book just for casually toying with my autoharp at home; I'm not a professional musician.
For my purpose, this book is wonderful: I can easily play the songs from the listed chords, and there's a huge variety. I think it has done a great job of picking out the most classic songs from the early through mid 20th century, although by necessity as it gets closer to the present it gets a little more sparse, fleshing out the more popular shows a the expense of some of the excellent but less known ones.
While some reviewers have correctly complained that the book doesn't include everything... if it did, it would look like an encyclopedia, and cost as much. It has a well selected set of music given that they have to cram it into a book you can carry in your backpack. Also, keep in mind that they can't necessarily get the rights to publish everything at a price that would make the book affordable. I accepted before I bought it that I'll need to supplement it with a few more song books, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper to buy this than to buy a songbook from every musical I'd want one for.
The indices are very useful: notice the plural, indices. It's indexed by song title, by show title, and by composer.
I'm rating this book 4 stars instead of 5 primarily because of the binding: I hate plastic comb bindings. I know it's a big book and they want to bind it cheaply so it's affordable, but even a wire spiral would be better... marginally, anyway. I'm convinced the pages will eventually tear along the binding, so I know that I'll eventually have to figure out a way to re-bind it.
My other complaint, and it's fairly minor, is that some of the songs are a bit sparse on chords: I ocasionally find myself wanting to pencil in a few extra chords... but hey, it's my book now, I can do that. If you're really helpless with music you'll have a problem with that, but then, if you're that helpless with music you probably wouldn't want a fake book, now would you?
Not necessarily what you expect.......2005-04-14
This book has some interesting good and bad points. First, the good: It's a fake book in the Hal Leonard style, in original keys, of a wide selection of the best known Broadway songs. Lots of good stuff. And unlike The Ultimate Fake Book (which is great for other reasons), the songs are conveniently organized by Show rather than by Title. A nice addition is a synopsis of each show and its relevance at the beginning of the book.
But the bad... first, like other very large Hal Leonard books, the binding is a plastic tab that is hard to turn relative to spiral bindings and tends to come apart over time. Second, many (but not all) songs have what appear to be guitar chord charts, which are distracting to everyone else. And third, it doesn't have all the songs you expect.
For example, it doesn't have songs from the movie versions (which you may not realize weren't part of the broadway version) or songs from updated broadway versions. The play "Grease" is represented, for example, but lacks the theme song (Grease), Hopelessly Devoted to You, Greased Lightning and other big hits from the show. Similarly, Starlight Express in its original incarnation was not that big a hit. "The New Starlight Express" was. Amazingly, there are only a few songs from the latter in the book; it's missing "He'll Whistle At Me" and "Next Time You Fall In Love", along with about six others. This means, of course, that after seeing the (current) broadway production, you won't be able to pick up this book and play the tunes; they're not there.
However, there are a LOT of great tunes that are there, the organization is great, and as always Hal Leonard did a great job of arranging them.
Worth the money.......2003-08-03
I have so much fun playing Broadway songs on my violin. I really do. The nice thing about this book, especially for violin, is that it only shows the melody in treble clef so it eliminates the annoying page-turning you have to deal with when playing from a piano book. Though sometimes I get sad the book doesn't have a song I like in it, but it really has a great selection, one or two songs from any Broadway you can think of and many pages of music from greats like Les Miz and Phantom. Well worth the investment.
Book Description
From the late 1920s to late 1950s, the Broadway theatre was America's cultural epicenter. Television didn't exist and movies were novelties. Entertainment took the form of literature, music, and theatre. During this golden age of Broadway, actors and actresses became legends and starred in now classic plays. Laurence Olivier, Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontaine were names to remember, etching plays into memory as they brought the words of Tennessee Williams or Eugene O’Neill to life. Joseph Cotton romanced Katherine Hepburn in Philip Barry's The Philadelphia Story while Laurette Taylor became The Glass Menagerie’s Amanda Wingfield. Frederic March, Florence Eldridge, Jason Robards Jr. and Bradford Dillman showed us life among the ruins in Long Day's Journey Into Night. In All That Glittered, Ethan Mordden, long one of Broadway's best chroniclers, recreates the fascinating lost world of its golden age.
Customer Reviews:
Mordden Does It Again.......2007-09-30
Ethan Mordden has written many books on the topic of Broadway, although generally they have been about the musical stage. This time he writes about plays, (mostly) without music, and rather arbitrarily defines, perhaps for purposes of symmetry, its golden age as the period between 1919 and 1959 (although he can't help himself and goes on into the 1960s a bit). As usual one is amazed at his encyclopedic knowledge of Broadway history; one can imagine him spending weeks and months, perhaps even years, in dusty libraries reading all those old copies of Variety, Playbill and the New York newspapers. His all-but-copyrighted bitchiness is much in evidence and gave me more than a few chuckles. His penchant for pointing who was gay among the actors, authors and directors, and for finding gay themes where they aren't obvious, is prominent.
He chronicles the Broadway spoken play by decade and finds something characteristic about each period. I found his writing, always sparkling, becomes more so when he gets to the 1940s and beyond, perhaps because those plays and the people who made them are within living memory for many people. Clearly Mordden (who is right at sixty, although his glamorous never-changing dustjacket picture hasn't changed in at least two decades) has had personal contact with many of the people mentioned in those latter years and he has some tales to tell.
Included are some pretty obscure plays and we are all the more informed for that. He writes much about the important actors, writers, producers and directors and we pick up a lot of theater lore as a result. His writing style is dense with fact and sometimes hermetic but it always dances along. I had difficulty putting the book down.
Another valuable book by Mordden, possibly primarily for specialists but assimilable by the casual reader with even a modicum of interest in the subject.
Scott Morrison
A fascinating retrospective on the role of Broadway in American culture.......2007-06-25
I love theatre history, but Mordden is such a fine writer that I will read his "History of Plumbing" should he write one.
Unlike his essential seven-volume chronicle of the musical, this is not a show-by-show description. Instead, Mordden takes a thematic approach, insightfully linking the development of the Broadway play to broader cultural developments. The shift from rural to urban humor, the relationship between Broadway and Hollywood, and the role of theatre as educator to the unsophisticated are among his compelling through-lines. Despite my unfamiliarity with most of the titles referenced, this is a great read.
Play Time.......2007-04-06
Ethan Mordden is probably best known for three things: the impossibility of remembering how to spell his last name; the width and depth of his subject matter; and his encyclopedic knowledge of musical theater. To all this, we can now add a fourth; an almost equally deep knowledge of "straight" (in the theatrical sense) drama. While it is arguable as to whether the golden age began in 1919 and ended in 1959, Mordden's treatment of this span is as exciting and insightful as any of his other critical studies and that, as his readers know, is saying a lot! (Aside to Mr. Mordden: The title "Beggar on Horseback" may be more closely related to the saying, "If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride."... just a thought). Oh, and the only reason for 4 instead of 5 stars is to have somewhere to go for the next time.
Book Description
An exclusive first look behind the scenes of the popular Broadway musical.
With its cast of furry puppets, its shockingly politically incorrect lyrics, and its hilarious upending of children's television,Avenue Q took Broadway by storm. The New York Times declared it "a breakthrough musical," and after a two-year run, the Golden Theater is still selling out eight shows a week. Its success is not limited to the Great White Way, however: This summer, the cast will be swearing, drinking, and ennui-ing their way across the country.
As smart, risqué, and downright entertaining as the show itself, Avenue Q is a must-have companion book. In addition to the complete Tony Award-winning book and songs (perfect for those who can't get enough of the lyrics to "It Sucks to Be Me"), Avenue Q is packed with exclusive interviews with the cast and creatures, and features puzzles, connect-the-dots, and other "educational" activities to prepare readers for life after college. With a distinctive cover and chock-full of gorgeous photography and original illustrations, Avenue Q is a jam-packed thrill ride of a book.
Customer Reviews:
Bob's dad review.......2007-09-06
I actually bought this book as a gift for my son at his request after he saw excerpts from the Broadway show. He loves the book and is using it to make his own puppets at home. He's also going to see the show on Broadway. Learned all the songs from the book and thinks it's great. The only reason I didn't give it a 5 star rating is because his copy of the book came through with the fuzzy orange cover attached upside down, or backwards, or both. Not a big deal - as long as we don't have to vacuum it every few days.
A Must Have For An Avenue Q Fan!.......2007-08-13
This is an amazing book! I ordered it from local bookstore for $30! Then I checked here and it was $7!!! Needless to say I returned the other one and bought this one! The book does shed, but not too bad. There are great in-depth biographies of the puppets and hilarious illustrations inside! An absolute must buy!
The Fuzzy Book.......2007-07-08
This book gives you an inside look at what was going on when the writers were thinking about when they conceived Avenue Q. The book is purely for fun, much like a children's book for adults.
Add an extra star if you are an Avenue Q fan.
(Buyer beware: the fuzzy cover of the book sheds orange fur everywhere!)
Everything you need about Av Q.......2007-03-08
This book has everything you want to know about the musical Avenue Q. Why they made this musical. Why they chose puppetry. Why is Rod blue? Why is Trekkie played by two puppeteers? How they made the marketing. What do the actors think about their puppets/characters/political view. And also contains the complete textbook, and deleted scenes. And everything is designed in a fun and extravagant colorfull playfull way as if its a kidsbook.
The fuzzy cover alone is worth the effort.
It's Q-te!.......2007-02-22
Very furry and funny book! The perfect extension to the Broadway (or London) Q experience. The same spirit, the same humor.... It has everything. Plus the complete book! Wich has been really helpful for me considering I just acquired the French production rights for the show, and needed the complete book to begin the adaptation of the lyrics!!!!
Customer Reviews:
Nice book........2007-10-01
A very nice book. It is a very wide ranging overview regarding the creation of the musical. The books value was in its photographs. The actual text was fairly superficial. As a fan I would have enjoyed more details regarding the performers, more stories and quotes from the various creative principals.
Awesome.......2007-08-04
I love this book. It's arrived before I was expecting.
Also, better price than at the theater.
Product Description
Nominated for a whopping 10 Tony Awards and grossing more than $1 million each week, Wicked is this year's Broadway smash! A prequel to the all-American classic The Wizard of Oz, this new musical is a character study of Elphaba and Glinda, school roommates who grow up to become the Wicked Witch and the Good Witch, respectively. Feature a special section of color photos from the production, a note from composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz, and these fantastic tunes: As Long as You're Mine Dancing Through Life Defying Gravity For Good I Couldn't Be Happier I'm Not That Girl No Good Deed No One Mourns the Wicked One Short Day Popular What Is This Feeling? The Wizard and I Wonderful.
Customer Reviews:
Wicked Sheet Music Review.......2007-09-24
If you love the music from the musical, then you've found the right book. While some of the songs have teeny differences between the recording and what's written, it's not enough to make it awful. The range is simple weather you're a contralto or a first soprano. The accompnament is a bit of a challenge, but easy to overcome with practice.
5 Stars for Accomplished Players - 2 Stars for Beginners.......2007-08-06
Pieces seem to be very true to the original score. Four and Five sharps or flats is common. Multiple changes in time signature within the pieces. Great if you're comfortable playing difficult music.
Incredibly accurate.......2007-07-14
I'm loving this book! The arrangements are a great difficulty level- challanging, but not impossible. No One Mourns the Wicked, Defying Gravity, Dancing Through Life, and What Is This Feeling are edited, but not that bad, and Thank Goodness is reduced to Glinda's solo, I Couldn't Be Happier.
There's really no substitute for this book. The arrangements and the chords themselves are too complicated to pick up by ear. I'd encourage anyone who loves this musical and knows piano to invest in this book. It's a real keeper.
FOR ALL PAINO PLAYERS!!.......2007-05-12
this book is great for all piano players. it is fun and easy. also, it has the lyrics so you can sing along while you play. this book is the best.
So good, but so hard!.......2007-05-05
Five stars to this book because the songs are beautifully adapted and true to the musical. However, I bought this book so I could tinker with it on my piano, and it is way too hard for me to get anywhere! I played piano for 8 years as a kid, and am now just a rusty beginner/intermediate player. I thought I could eventually get these songs down by playing them over and over, but after flipping through everything I think the only near-manageable song is "For Good." My favorite, "No Good Deed," is completely impossible and I'll just have to listen to my CD. I would suggest this book for the highly advanced pianist. As for me, I'm going to go check out that easy piano version.
Amazon.com
This is by far the must-get theater book of the year. With dazzling punk graphics that will quickly win book industry awards, the volume contains the entire libretto of the Tony- and Pulitzer-winning musical about love and loyalty among starving AIDS-stricken artists in New York's East Village. But editors Evelyn McDonnell and Katherine Silberger wisely understand that the story of the show's creation is as compelling as the musical itself--so more than half of this volume is devoted to an oral history of the composer/lyricist/librettist Jonathan Larson, who came to New York hoping to revolutionize musical theater--then died of an aortic aneurysm the night of the show's final preview. It's an event book for an event musical.
Book Description
In these pages, Rent offers what most theater books can't: a chance to step behind the curtain and feel the electricity of a stage phenomenon as it unfolds.
Rent has single-handedly reinvigorated Broadway and taken America by storm. Sweeping all major theater awards, including the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for drama, as well as four 1996 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score for a Musical, Rent captures the heart and spirit of a generation, refleting it onstage through the emotion of its stirring words and music, and the energy of its young cast. Now, for the first time, Rent comes to life on the page -- through vivid color photographs, the full libretto, and an utterly compelling behind-the-scenes oral history of the show's creation. Here is the exclusive and absolutely complete companion to Rent, told in the voices of the extraordinary talent behind its success: the actors, the director, the producers, and the librettist and composer himself, Jonathan Larson, whose sudden death, on the eve of the first performance, has made Rent's life-affirming message all the more poignant.
Customer Reviews:
Good Coffee Table Book.......2007-04-20
I wasn't a big fan of "Rent" until I saw the movie, and when I read this book, it gave me a bigger meaning to the play/movie.
Warning: This is just for fans of "Rent". Those who haven't seen the movie will get into the story of how it was made, but not as much the screenplay.
Mesure your life in love.......2007-03-07
The life of Jonathan, how Rent was born, how it still grows... The neverending story of the musical that changed (and continues changing) the world. A MUST for every renthead, but also for everyone who likes this musical (both the stage version or the movie). A lot of informations, photos, the musical script...
You HAVE TO BUY IT!!!
...it made me cry... it's SO real... and SO full of love... AMAZING!!!
Rent Head.......2007-01-09
Daughter is "Rent Head" she cried of happiness when she received for Christmas so That gets 5++++ Stars in my book.
RENT is wonderful.......2006-11-04
This book was the best resouce on RENT I've ever seen. I really felt like I was a part of it and I understand Jonathan's reasons for writing RENT so much more than I ever did before. It is AMAZING!
Rent.......2006-11-03
If you are a Rent head this is the book for you. It is great with behind the scenes tales of the movie and how Rent came about.
Book Description
The most comprehensive and widely used Broadway reference book has been expanded and updated to include more than 300 of the most important and memorable productions of the American musical theatre. Chronologically arranged beginning with The Black Crook in 1866, this edition includes show entries up through the latest hits (Rent, Sunset Boulevard, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Victor/Victoria, Passion) and all the latest big revivals (Show Boat, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The King and I). Features a wealth of statistics, inside information, critical reception, cast lists, and pithy commentary about each show. Includes seven completely revised, cross-referenced indexes and over 200 photographs.
Customer Reviews:
This book is a great reference.......2006-03-11
I purchased this book for my father. He is a music professor and teaches a course in Broadway Musicals. He just raved about how helpful it is to he and his students.
Great book.......2002-08-01
This was the required text book for a class in musical theater in college. I found it informative but lacked many details that I would have like to have known.
Could use more frequent updates but..........2001-07-28
overall a nice book covering the Bway Musicals. I happened to purchase one for a friend who attends the theater (both Broadway and off-Broadway) religiously and she was very happy with the gift.
A true must-have book for all musical theatre fans!.......2000-07-26
This book has proven and indispensable part of my theatre library, and if you get it, it will become one for you as well. Want to know what date the original production of Show Boat opened on Broadway? This book will tell you. Who the original stars of Mexican Hayride were? That's in here, too. You will be able to find the answer to just about any question you could ever ask of Broadway's hit musicals. A perfect companion piece to Ken Mandelbaum's Not Since Carrie (which chronicles the flop musicals this book mostly excludes), and a wonderful way of tracking the history of the Broadway musical, Broadway Musicals: Show by Show is as comprehensive, helpful, and essential as reference books on Broadway come.
FANTASTIC! The most useful guide for easy theatre reference.......1998-08-31
Enough can't be said about this book! It is a masterpiece for theatre buffs like myself. I live by that book, since I'm involved in theatre on a daily basis. When considering which musical to use in our high school's season next year I immediately turned to this book for it's easy synopsis of so many hit shows, it's staistics about the shows, and it's genuine knowledge. The best reference book about theatre on the market today! Period.
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Broadway & Musicals
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Wicked (2003 Original Broadway Cast)
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Wicked - Piano/Vocal Arrangement
Son of a Witch: A Novel
Still I Can't Be Still
