Book Description
Book by Hugh Wheeler Introduction by Christopher Bond "Mr. Sondheim fearlessly explores psychic caverns where civilized people are not dying to go ... A naked Sweeney Todd stands revealed as a musical of naked rage, chewing up everyone in its path as it spits out blood and tears." - Frank Rich, The New York Times * "A work of such scope and such daring that it dwarfs every other Broadway musical that even attempts to invite comparison." - Rex Reed, New York Daily News
Customer Reviews:
Sick, sick, sick!!!!.......2007-01-04
I must say that this book lived up to everything I had ever heard about it. I don't think I have ever read a more disgusting account of madness in my life. It will be interesting to see how it comes out as a movie, as the story in print form drags on and on with huge gaps of dull nothingness between throat cuttings and meat grinding. Hopefully it will make a better movie than it does a book.
An Absolutely Thrilling Piece! .......2006-08-06
Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd makes sure that the man will rank with the best musical theater composers as well as the best classical composers. His eclectic, thrilling score for Sweeney Todd includes patter songs for the wonderful Mrs. Lovett, incredible arias for Sweeney Todd and romantic ballads for the young lovers. Although it is priced at $100.00, it is nearly 400 pages long and includes every note of music in the show as well as plently of dialouge that is incoroporated into musical scenes.
Sondheim's Best........2004-06-18
It was so wonderful to buy this book and to have the entirity of the musical right at my finger tips word for word. It's truly one of the best musicals ever concocted and Sondheim is a genius. I reccomend this to everyone whose a fan of the show.. if you're not familiar with the show, it might seem a little strange to you..
The pinnacle of Sondheim's Art.......2001-11-23
In 1979, Stephen Sondheim had a long and illustrious career on the Broadway stage, with "Company", "Follies", and "A Little Night Music" to his credit. "Sweeney Todd" capped that career with an extraordinarily inspired score, ably seconded by Hugh Wheeler's insightful and clever book. A triumph on all counts.
Sweeney Todd Music Book.......2000-04-27
Not only does the music book capture many of the aspects of the tale of Sweeney Todd, it captures Stephen Sondheim's brilliance in the world of music as a writer. This music book is well worth the price paid for it.
Book Description
In 1971, college student Ted Chapin found himself front row center as a production assistant at the creation of one of the greatest Broadway musicals, Follies. Needing college credit to graduate on time, he kept a journal of everything he saw and heard and thus was able to document in unprecedented detail how a musical is actually created. Now, more than thirty years later, he has fashioned an extraordinary chronicle. Follies was created by Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince, Michael Bennett, and James Goldman - giants in the evolution of the Broadway musical and geniuses at the top of their game. Everything Was Possible takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride, from the uncertainties of casting to drama-filled rehearsals, from the care and feeding of one-time movie and television stars to the pressures of a Boston tryout to the exhilaration of opening night on Broadway. Foreword by long-time NY critic Frank Rich.
Customer Reviews:
Fabulous but true.......2007-08-29
A friend of mine kept hounding me to get this book. So finally I did, and what a read! I couldn't put it down. As a former actress myself (did a National Tour that opened in Boston at the Wilbur in 1974), I totally identified with all the actors in "Follies." And knowing the show, I felt the hair go up on the back of my neck as the head honchos talk to Stephen Sondheim about a song for Carlotta who has been around for a long time but is still performing. OK so THIS is when he writes "I'm Still Here"! Many other "hair-raising" moments. If you have ever been involved with the backstage side of theatre--acting, directing, or just working props--you will find this book resonating with your own experiences. Heartily recommend it!
Wasn't That a Blast???.......2005-08-20
Thank you, Ted Chapin. This is a wonderful memoir on the birth of the now legendary, (though not appreciated by everyone at the time), Broadway musical, Follies, as seen through the eyes of young well connected college kid who was lucky enough to work on the production and savvy enough to keep and save all his notes! Whew! Long sentence. Follies is my all time favorite Broadway score and there's a reason for that. Once you get hooked on this musical, its hard to turn away, you'll want all the various recordings. Sadly, though the show ran for over a year, it lost its entire investment, partly due to its huge operating cost and partly because the NY Times critic didnt like it and it lost the Best Musical Tony to an undeserving rival. Over the years and through various revivals the stature of this musical has grown into its own legend. Chapin was there to see its birth and we all should be grateful for this book. From the rehearsals, to its out of town tryout, Broadway opening and beyond, Chapin was there. We get to know many of the principals through his eyes (Alexis, Dorothy, Yvonne) and see how a musical is put together from start to finish. This is must reading for any Broadway fan and fascinating even if you arent much of one. Hopefully, if you havent listened to the score, this will motivate you to go out and buy one of the various recordings (they all have their pluses and minuses, The Paper Mill Playhouse recording is the most complete). Chapin is discrete (Was Yvonne just a pal or a romance?) keeping gossip to a minimum, but the book never loses momentum. A real page turner. I hated to see it end! Bravo!
A Must for Sondheimites.......2005-08-12
All I can say is that Ted Chapin must have kept very thorough notes as Everything Was Possible, the Birth of the Musical Follies, feels like it is written about a show that was produced only recently rather than over thirty years ago. All the creators and performers come alive vividly (and lovingly) in this marvelous book. The author traces the entire rehearsal, out-of-town tryout, and preview period of the musical Follies, focusing only on what he himself witnessed and recorded as a twenty year old gofer with the show. What is quite remarkable is his fairness to everyone involved. Even the divaish moments of some are balanced with these very same personalities more human moments at others. Anyone interested in Sondheim, musical theatre, or the art of putting it together will be delighted with this blow-by-blow account (perhaps a tad too much on rare occasions). A delightful book.
THEY DON'T MAKE 'EM LIKE THEY USED TO.......2005-05-27
There ain't many of us, but there are enough of us to warrant a lengthy and detailed account of how Follies came to be. I'm talking about all of us would-be "Broadway babies," who went through college singing the lyrics to songs such as "Broadway Baby," "Buddy's Blues," "I'm Still Here," and sighed some deep ones over "Losing My Mind." We were too late to see the original production of Follies but we know all the songs by heart and the names of stars Alexis Smith and Yvonne De Carlo, despite never having seen any films of either Hollywood lady. If you can count yourself in this group of show people for whom Follies is legendary, then this book is for you.
To an outsider, it must read like a technical manual on some weird and twisted process. To me, it reads like every theatre production rehearsal period I've ever been through (and I'm not even a pro, so to speak) except that the tunes are being written by Sondheim almost minute to minute, Hal Prince is busting himself to get the nuances to be less subtle and Michael Bennett is try to move the thing along at a trot without giving his "older" actors heart attacks! Same process, big names, very high stakes.
The kid, that is the fly-on-the-wall former Follies gofer turned narrator, is good. Mr. Chapin, as a twenty year old student, worked as the Follies gofer - you think, that could have been me if I had been in the same place at the same time - and kept a journal of everything he saw and heard. The key here is that he heard a lot and jotted it down verbatim. For this he should win a friendly Eve Harrington award because without him we would never know, and come to love, such charming and kooky people like 74 year old Ethel Shutta who immortalized "Broadway Baby," Gene Nelson who struggled arduously to get "The Right Girl" just right, or Fifi D'Orsay who sang "Ah, Paree!" while irritating her colleagues with her fake French persona. Mr. Chapin, with loving detail, recreates every step of hard work which drove Alexis Smith to a Tony Award winning performance. He etches out an edgy portrait of Yvonne De Carlo, far and away outside our expectations of the actress we used to know only as Lily Munster. By the end of the book, I was moved to read about the deaths of many of the people who created Follies. They are so deeply embedded in theatre history and legend that you do really believe that old saying "they don't make 'em like they used to."
From the eager rehearsals in faraway downtown New York, to rocky previews in Boston, and finally to its opening at the Winter Garden, this is a story which includes every human foible and triumph, a theatre account worth its hardcover price. The introduction by Frank Rich alone is enough to make you stand up and cheer for what Broadway used to be.
The next best thing to attending a Broadway musical.......2005-05-11
Recommended for fans of the musical is one of the best books you'll see on how major Broadway production was created: Ted Chapin's Everything Was Possible: The Birth Of The Musical Follies. Chapin's insider's account tells a bewitching story of the musical's evolution, from its initial casting to rehearsals, growth, and the fostering of stars. All the roots of a major Broadway production are clarified and given lively analysis, with plenty of first-person insights and observations throughout. The next best thing to attending a Broadway musical in production!
Book Description
"The research is voluminous, as is the artistry and perceptiveness. Swayne has lived richly within the world of Sondheim's music."
---Richard Crawford, author of America's Musical Life: A History
"Sondheim's career and music have never been so skillfully dissected, examined, and put in context. With its focus on his work as composer, this book is surprising and welcome."
---Theodore S. Chapin, President and Executive Director, The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization
"What a fascinating book, full of insights large and small. An impressive analysis and summary of Sondheim's many sources of inspiration. All fans of the composer and lovers of Broadway in general will treasure and frequently refer to Swayne's work."
---Tom Riis, Joseph Negler Professor of Musicology and Director of the American Music Research Center, University of Colorado
Stephen Sondheim has made it clear that he considers himself a "playwright in song." How he arrived at this unique appellation is the subject of How Sondheim Found His Sound---an absorbing study of the multitudinous influences on Sondheim's work.
Taking Sondheim's own comments and music as a starting point, author Steve Swayne offers a biography of the artist's style, pulling aside the curtain on Sondheim's creative universe to reveal the many influences---from classical music to theater to film---that have established Sondheim as one of the greatest dramatic composers of the twentieth century.
Sondheim has spoken often and freely about the music, theater, and films he likes, and on occasion has made explicit references to how past works crop up in his own work. He has also freely acknowledged his eclecticism, seeing in it neither a curse nor a blessing but a fact of his creative life.
Among the many forces influencing his work, Sondheim has readily pointed to a wide field: classical music from 1850 to 1950; the songs of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood; the theatrical innovations of Oscar Hammerstein II and his collaborators; the cinematic elements found in certain film schools; and the melodramatic style of particular plays and films. Ultimately, Sondheim found his sound by amalgamating these seemingly disparate components into his unique patois.
How Sondheim Found His Sound is the first book to provide an overview of his style and one of only a few to account for these various components, how they appear in Sondheim's work, and how they affect his musical and dramatic choices.
Customer Reviews:
Good but not Great.......2007-01-17
This book got off to a good start, analyzing Sondheim's favorite classical composers and how they show up in his own musical language. The next chapter is devoted to Sondheim's broadway influences, and gives a good examination of these as well.
The second half of the book is devoted to Sondheim's theatrical and cinematic influences. It is here that Swayne goes off track. Though he makes some interesting connections between film technique and musical composition, it seems to me that this is where his thesis falls short, and could have been developed much more cogently. Also, one would think that Swayne would devote more attention to actual film scores.
My main complaint is that in a book called "How Sondheim Found His Sound", one would expect to find at least a mention of the orchestration in Sondheim's shows. Perhaps this is just my own personal bent, as I have always wondered just how Sondheim works with his orchestrators and to what extent he thinks in orchestral terms.
In terms of the writing, this book (especially in the later chapters) all too often reads like an undergraduate music paper. All this being said, there's enough in here to warrant purchase by real Sondheim junkies.
A severely flawed look at pieces of the craft........2006-12-30
To the writer: For whom was this book written? Who was the intended audience? What's with the "thesaurus" words peppering the text? Why all the conjecture? Why not just ask the composer? This is a treatise I'd hand back to the student for major rewriting.
Worth Reading.......2006-11-10
"How Sondheim Found his Sound" is a book full of very interesting information, although my reasoning for allocating only 4-stars is because I feel that more musical examples could have been used.
That having been said, it is a very thouroughly researched book, and I would recommend it to Sondheim fans, myself included.
One last note would be that having the vocal scores in question along side this book would allow a person to garner more of an understanding of the analyses (due to the general lack of musical examples).
Great primer on Sondheim.......2005-10-09
This is a great book on how Sondheim "found his sound." I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Sondheim's card system and it gave me greater insight into a person who knew Leonard Bernstein.
Fascinating Look at the Creative Process.......2005-08-22
Sir Isaac Newton once said: 'If I have accomplished anything, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants.' Stephen Sondheim would probably say something similar.
He has acknowledged being influenced by classical music, Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, Hollywood and many more. In the end though, Sondheim's work has taken these together and produced something uniquely his own. The results speak for themselves: West Side Story, Gypsy, Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, Do I Hear a Waltz and the list goes on and on. In 2004 alone there was the first Broadway production of Assassins, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (London), The Frogs (Lincoln Center), Passion, Pacific Overtures.
This book though, is not a description of what he has done, it's an in depth analysis of the way his music came about. The author teaches music at Dartmouth. His analysis, aided by Sondheim himself talks not only about the origins of music, but the way Sondheim goes about developing a song. It's a fascinating look at the creative process.
Book Description
"Throwing caution to the winds, I assert that A Little Night Music comes as close as possible to being the perfect romantic comedy musical." -Brendan Gill, The New Yorker "Heady, civilized, sophisticated and enchanting. Good God! An adult musical." -Clive Barnes, The New York Times
Customer Reviews:
Yes, Full Vocal Score.......2007-05-12
I'm not sure why there are review for the book and the movie, or why someone comments that this isn't the full score. I ordered it, and they sent me the full piano/vocal conductor's score.
misleading.......2007-01-12
I really thought I was getting a score. This is NOT a score. This is a libretto only. A previous review by a customer was misleading, and the description of the product not clear. This is NOT a score. No music, only lyrics.
Full Vocal Score.......2006-05-03
As advertised, this is the full vocal score to "Night Music" by Stephen Sondheim. The music is presented as a piano reduction of Tunick's orchestrations with instrumental cues written in. Measures of music which were omitted from the original Broadway production have been included, but are marked with asterisks detailing their omission. People familiar with the show will notice that Sondheim composed lyrics for the opening number which have been traditionally replaced with "la's." The score includes a complete breakdown of Tunick's orchestration, and notes that some instrumental parts are "optional."
2004! Another Little Night Music film please!.......2004-04-21
I gave the musical five stars, not this movie. What were they thinking by not putting the original cast in it!!!If they can remake all these other movies, they can remake A Little Night Music, and put some damn good singers in there. Does anybody know a producer? I don't. Get cracking!! This is too good a musical to have just the one pitiful example.
Forget the Movie.......2001-11-23
The 1976 film version of this show has been JUSTIFIABLY panned. Forget it. Listen instead to the soundtrack album and bask in what is Sondheim's most lilting score. An entire musical in triple time written by a composer at the height of his powers: What more could one ask??
Book Description
Winner of the 1995 Pulitzer Prize. "Sunday is itself a modernist creation, perhaps the first truly modernist work of musical theatre that Broadway has produced ... a watershed event that demands nothing less than a retrospective, even revisionist, look at the development of the serious Broadway musical."- Frank Rich, The New York Times Magazine
Customer Reviews:
Interpretation.......2001-11-30
Sondheim and Lapine wrote an excellent musical about the pointillist painter George Seurat. I really started to love the musical when I read Marc Bauch's "Themes and Topics of the American Musical" (Marburg: Tectum Verlag, 2001. ISBN: 3828811418), which I recommend to get to know how intertextually Sondheim worked. Bauch put Sondheim in the tradition of the American Musical with reference to his themes.
Pulitzer and Seurat put together by Sondheim and Lapine.......2000-05-20
This show is like a work of the main Character Georges Seurat. Point and point are putted together to a great piece of art. Stepehn Sondheim who recieved the Pulitzer Prize for this astonishing work of American Musical Theatre puts all the points together to one brilliant composition of story and storytelling his co-author James Lapine who wrote the book while Sondheim wrote the lyrics does a great job, too. It is the most beautiful kind of lyric I ever had seen in this masterpiece: Children and art. I really enjoyed to read this book and it is essentially for everybody who is interested in the Musical Theatre.
Book Description
The Tony Award-winning musical,
now adapted into a lavishly illustrated book
Into the Woods is the imaginative account of what happens when the lives of new and old fairy-tale characters dramatically and humorously come together. Cinderella, Jack (of bean-stalk fame), Little Red Ridinghood, and the Baker and his Wife set out for the forest on a quest to find "happily ever after." Along the way they meet Rapunzel, a Wicked Witch, a lascivious Wolf, vengeful Giants, a couple of charming Princes, and their own destiny. With wit and wisdom, the authors have given us a parable about the loss of innocence, the joys and sorrows of adulthood, and the price paid for getting the things you really want.
Customer Reviews:
Great for kids.......2007-05-15
The pictures were wonderful and it was a great adaptation of the Broadway show.
Once Upon A Time (I Wish!).......2006-09-09
First off I wanted to comment on that I'm not under 13, I'm 18. But after reading "Discerning Viewer" said about "Into the Woods." I had to say something.
Sondheim used the original, unedited versions of the Fairy Tales. Case being that the stories were more for adults AND children. And there are universal morals. Don't smother your children (Rapunzel), Don't deviate from the path (Red Ridding Hood), Despite being unappreciated and condemned to serving others, as long as you are kind natured and a truly good person, your dreams will come true (Cinderella). And many argue that Jack and the Beanstalk's is moral is learning to survive and fend for one's self and family.
The second act asks the questions and consequences that the Fairy Tales never answer, like does marrying a handsome Prince really make someone happy? Is a Giant always wrong, and how do you deal with his angry widow? Is killing the wolf the best solution? And does it pay to be charming and not sincere? And two other powerful points of the musical, that are also morals are told; That no one is alone, that everyone depends/needs on someone to survive. And finally that what ever we do, children will SEE and HEAR it, so they LEARN from it, so be careful of our actions and what we tell (and stories) when we say "Listen to Me..."
Children Will Listen.......2006-07-17
I purchased this in conjunction with the DVD to use for a paper I wrote about "Into the Woods" and its commentary on children's literature and the very notion of childhood. I'd urge anyone to buy the book if they love the show and are interested in looking at it line by line to absorb even more clever subtlties. Great for any ITW fan who is looking to delve deeper into the show's magic and message.
A new twist.......2005-08-24
This book gives a new twist on some old stories. By way of the Woods, the story created a way to entertwine them all. We go through the experiences of Cinderella, Jack and the Bean Stalk, and the Baker & his wife who are in want of a child, and let us not forget, the Witch and her Rapunzel. Each character wants more than anything in the world something, and they sneak around eachother at times and at others work together to eventually find a happy ending for them all. Also, for those of you who sang "Into the Woods" in school or who have seen the play enough, there are times when you can just start to sing it out for your toddler's amusement. Though I cannot forget that some parts with the Princes have a bit of suggestive talk, but nothing truely in appropriate.
Not what it appears to be.......2005-03-03
The play "Into the Woods" not only contains sinister elements, but has an overall dark message to convey. It preaches moral relativism as blatantly as any catechism teaches religious doctrine. It teaches is that lying, stealing, cheating, and even murder can be justified as long as it is not against one's perspective on life. Also, that life is grim and experiencing things forbidden will help you. This religious doctrine of corruption is conveyed through the story and through specific lyrics of the songs.
Average customer rating:
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Word Crazy: Broadway Lyricists from Cohan to Sondheim
Thomas S. Hischak
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
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ASIN: 0275938492 |
Book Description
This volume surveys the development of the American musical during the 20th century by focusing on one of the most important yet least recognized members of the creative team: the lyricist. From George M. Cohan and Irving Berlin through Oscar Hammerstein II, Alan Jay Lerner, Ira Gershwin, Stephen Sondheim, and others, Word Crazy examines both well-known and obscure writers who have shaped one of America's most beloved theatrical forms. The author offers an overview of each lyricist's career and works and evaluates his or her strengths, weaknesses, patterns, temperament, and personal vision. The result is an unusual critical history of the Broadway musical that will be of significant interest to students of the theatre as well as to anyone who wishes to learn more about the unique craft of the theatre lyricist. Beginning with George M. Cohan, the American theatre's first important lyricist, and continuing up into the 1980s, the book presents an overall history of the musical theatre during this century. Hischak explores the various trends and movements, from the early operettas through the arrival of jazz, and up through the conceptual musicals of the last 30 years. The treatment is chronological with most chapters focusing on a single lyricist. A bibliography and index complete the volume. By reviewing the careers and works of America's most influential theatre lyricists, Hischak offers a fresh new perspective on the evolution of musical theatre in America.
Book Description
Book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart Introduction by Larry Gelbart "This brazenly retro Broadway musical, inspired by Plautus, is as timeless as comedy itself." -Vincent Canby, The New York Times "The most urbane and literate musical comedy text ever conceived." -John Simon, New York magazine
Customer Reviews:
Captures the Essence of Forum, and then some!.......2001-06-22
"Forum" is one of those rare musical comedies...one of those we hardly ever stuble across. "Forum" is actually funny. And I don't just mean "haha" funny. I mean roll in the aisles and laugh until it hurts funny. The jokes just never stop coming-even during the musical numbers!
Here, one can see the springboard for three Tony award winning broadway productions: the script. This is the foundation of "Forum's" comic genius, with a combination of low-brow vaudeville and high-brow wordplay. Comedy in this show hits you at every level in every direction!
The best part is that several songs cut from the show are included in an appendix. There is also a great introduction that explains that long and rough journey "Forum" took before it became a huge hit.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.......2000-03-27
This book was very enjoyable. I would recomend it to anyone looking for a light hearted book to read that is not to difficult. This book makes you think of what could happen in your everyday life. I think everyone should read this book.
I thought it was great but not perfect.......2000-03-24
I thought the music was very wonderful and original and the way the music was displayed was very good indeed. The score not only is great in itself, it was also a great accompanyment to the liberetto book witch you can also get on amazon.com. for any lovers of this play or anyone who likes broadway at all, I would definatly recomend this book.
Better to see than hear..........2000-01-07
All of the authors of this musical were not as developed in their art as they are now. This is an excellent show full of comedy... but still not Sondheim's best. Since amazon.com rarely gives good suggestion... I will give my own! Check out these scripts by sondheim: Company, Anyone Can Whistle, Sunday in the Park With George
A Whole LOT of FUNNY things happen on the way to the forum!.......1999-10-02
True love, true lust, a pimp, a pauper, fun and frolic, mystery and mayhem, and just when you think there is no hope for a fairytale ending (as they say in the play "we'll never find happiness!""Well, we'll just have to be happy without it!") a happy ending (A total surprise to everyone including the cast!)!
Based on a Greek comedy (think B.C!), and revamped in the early 60's with music by Sondheim (Into The Woods, West Side Story), and script by Gelbart (*M*A*S*H*), the play stays true to it's root's (with every male in a dress, O.K. toga!) but throws in a lil' of that almost, but not quite to the edge 60's humor (take for instance when three cast members all end up in a wedding gown, but one was not exactly born to be a bride-if you know what I mean!)
If you love Shakespeare, and Austin Powers, or if you're looking for something in-between, try "Funny Thing"!
This play keeps you on your toes with it's many twists and turns, hilarious cases of mistaken identity, and out right tummy ticklers.
It's sheer fun!
Amazon.com
Subtitled The Broadway Musical from "Show Boat" to Sondheim, Geoffrey Block's book concerns itself with the creative process that made hits out of 14 musical comedies, such as Guys and Dolls and My Fair Lady, rather that just interpreting the impact of the finished projects. Block is adept at demonstrating how musical themes are used by the witty composers to tell or buttress the stories in subtle ways; there seem to be as many passages of sheet music recreated in the pages as there are photos. The book leans more heavily on scholarly analysis than others in the genre, but many of the insights and examples are developed here in print for the first time. Especially fascinating are the sections on the development of beloved numbers that went from ideas to hits, such as "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" in Porgy and Bess and "Bianca" in Kiss Me Kate.
Book Description
The classic musicals of Broadway can provide us with truly enchanted evenings. But while many of us can hum the music and even recount the plot from memory, we are often much less knowledgeable about how these great shows were put together. What was the inspiration for Rodgers and Harts Pal Joey, or Rodgers and Hammersteins Carousel? Why is Marias impassioned final speech in West Side Story spoken, rather than sung? Now, in Enchanted Evenings, Geoffrey Block offers theatre lovers an illuminating behind-the- scenes tour of some of the best loved, most admired, and most enduring musicals of Broadways Golden Era. Readers will find insightful studies of such all-time favorites as Show Boat, Anything Goes, Porgy and Bess, Carousel, Kiss Me, Kate, Guys and Dolls, The Most Happy Fella, My Fair Lady, and West Side Story. Block provides a documentary history of fourteen musicals in all--plus an epilogue exploring the plays of Stephen Sondheim--showing how each work took shape and revealing, at the same time, production by production, how the American musical evolved from the 1920s to the early 1960s, and beyond. The book's particular focus is on the music, offering a wealth of detail about how librettist, lyricist, composer, and director work together to shape the piece. Drawing on manuscript material such as musical sketches, autograph manuscripts, pre-production librettos and lyric drafts, Block reveals the winding route the works took to get to their final form. Block blends this close attention to the nuances of musical composition and stagecraft with trenchant social commentary and lively backstage anecdotes. Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, Kurt Weill, Frank Loesser, Leonard Bernstein, Sondheim, and other luminaries emerge as hardworking craftsmen under enormous pressure to sell tickets without compromising their dramatic vision and integrity. Opening night reviews and accounts of critical and popular response to subsequent revivals show how particular musicals have adapted to changing times and changing audiences, shedding light on why many of these innovative shows are still performed in high schools, colleges, and community theaters across the country, while others, such as Weills One Touch of Venus or Marc Blitzsteins The Cradle Will Rock, languish in comparative obscurity. Packed with information, including a complete discography and plot synopses and song-by-song scenic outlines for each of the fourteen shows, Enchanted Evenings is an essential reference as well as a riveting history. It will deepen readersappreciation and enjoyment of these beloved musicals even as it delights both the seasoned theater goer and the neophyte encountering the magic of Broadway for the first time.
Customer Reviews:
This author knows music but not theatre.......2005-12-11
Block clearly knows his music theory, but he doesn't really understand musical theatre in any serious way. If you want some college music theory analysis of some show tunes, you might like this -- if you want insights into musical theatre, you won't get much of value here. And more than that, he appears to be one of those who believes musicals today all suck and only the old-fashioned ones have any value. All in all, not a great book...
Review of Geoffrey Block's 'Enchanted Evenings'.......1998-01-29
The contents of this book are very thorough, complete, and factual. The subject is very interesting, but if you don't understand music, he is sometimes hard to follow. He was my professor and this was a class text. Without his oral interpretation, I was, at times, left wondering what he meant. The book is filled with great pictures and original score. If your interested in how musicals are created, definately read this book.
Book Description
With thirteen Broadway musicals to his credit, Stephen Sondheim's career in the musical theater has outdistanced those of most of his contemporaries. Each of his shows has presented new challenges to audiences, and each has cast fresh perspectives on the nature and potential of the American musical, as well as probing deeply, often painfully, into the nature of our culture.
Sondheim's Broadway Musicals is the first book to take an in-depth look at Sondheim's work. Stephen Banfield examines each of Sondheim's musicals for Broadway, from West Side Story and Gypsy to the 1987 musical Into the Woods, and includes A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, Anyone Can Whistle, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Merrily We Roll Along, Sweeney Todd, and Sunday in the Park with George. Banfield also discusses Sondheim's other work, such as the 1991 show Assassins and his music for the 1990 film Dick Tracy--for which "Sooner or Later" won him an Academy Award for Best Song.
"Banfield seems almost to hear Sondheim's music with Sondheim's ears. This extremely valuable work discusses Sondheim's early training and subsequent career, his general compositional concerns, and his style. The meat of the book is a musical-dramatic analysis of his musicals . . . . For each musical, Banfield places the work and its components in a historical and typological text. He also treats in welcome detail the musical profile or universe of each show: Sondheim's use of generative intervals or interval complexes as source material, motifs that reappear in various guises in various songs, the sound world that defines the musical's emotional mind. The book will be as useful to those who are cool to Sondheim's work as to his fans." --Choice
Customer Reviews:
Scholarly Sondheim.......2007-08-16
This is an excellent publication, but very dense, and designed for the musicologist rather than just the fan. This covers Sondheim's works up to and including "Into The Woods".
Banfield is not "starry eyed" about Sondheim, and is, at times, critical of his 'borrowings' from other composers. He also insists on placing all his citations within the body of the text, rather than as footnotes or as an appendix at the end of the book. This makes for a very disjointed reading experience.
Worth a visit, but quite a plod through it's technicalities.
Not a book for everyone but one of the best out there.......2007-03-13
This book is wonderful in that Banfield has created a series of dissertations on the composition of each of Sondheim's most important works. Those of you who have extensive music theory background will find this book to be golden. Banfield uses musical exceprts and analyzes these small musical moments in regard to how they support the character or the situation and even foreshadowing at hand. I am reminded of a Bach sacred work in which the work is scored in such a way that the printed page creates a picture of the crucifix, yet at the same time depicts a remarkable musical moment. This is the sort of detail and craft that Sondheim uses. Sondheim is a man who is writing many years before his time. The politics and unions of New York Theatre have jaded him, but at any given moment one of Sondheim's works is being produced in revival and being understood far more so than the original production. "Merrily we Roll Along" is a brilliant work that has yet to be completely understood by the public, though "Sweeney Todd" is finally begining to be seen as the major work it is: one of the most important pieces of theatre to have been created so far. "Passion" was recognized as best musical at the Tony awards though never did a road production. "Passion" is brillaintly written so that there is no applause break, no intermission and the audience is not permitted a single moment from start to intense ending where he may slip back into the "real world." In this way, "Passion" moves more like a film, so that the audience, once caught into the magic, is not permitted even an instant of coming back to the surface, making the intensity of this work even more powerful. Sondheim's inteligence and insistence that our fast food nation use its mind to experience an evening of brilliance that often hits very close to home is both part of his brilliance and part of what causes critics to shy away. (We now laugh at the foolish critics who criticized the brilliant second act of "Sunday in The Park With George." Stephen Banfield's "Sondheim's Broadway Musical" gives us a book that is not only fun to read, but allows us to understand the work better. Before staging any Sondheim work yourself you must read this book and if you teach music theory, musical theatre or acting, then this is a book that must be included in the curriculum. For me? I read it both for the professional need as well as the intellectual stimulation. This is not a souvenier book but rather a brilliant study for those who are very serious about music, lyrics and the creation of character, life and art on the stage. Sondheim is an international treasure and we have the very unusual experience of living as contemporarys with a man who will be placed in history beside Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. Banfield's book will begin to show you why.
A Scholarly Investigation into Sondheim's Musical Methods.......2006-08-14
This is not a book for the casual Sondheim fan. Be warned, unless you have a fair degree of musical sophistication -- and this involves music theory and musicology -- this is not the book for you. But for those who do understand such arcane things as harmonic (including Schenkerian) analysis, or how a typical Broadway tune is constructed, or, to use Banfield's favorite term, the diegetic uses of music, this 1993 book is a gold mine. The emphasis throughout is on the music, not on dramatic construction or the lyrics themselves; they are noted but not dwelt on.
Banfield gives us some historical and biographical background, with a fair discussion of Sondheim's pre-Broadway career (including some tidbits about the collaboration with Bernstein on 'West Side Story'), an overview of the compositional process, detailed exegesis of each of Sondheim's works from 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum' through 'Into the Woods.' There are many scholarly references and a voluminous bibliography as well as a slightly light-weight index. One is disappointed that the book stops in the early 1990s. Perhaps Banfield will update it one day.
This is definitely a book for serious students of Sondheim's work. It is a densely written text that definitely repays close study.
Scott Morrison
Impressive, arrogant, unclear..........2002-06-20
Despite the wealth of information which is hidden in this book, the professorial writing style makes it very difficult to unearth. The average sentence runs on for 7 full-length lines, and is annoyingly interrupted by literary name-dropping (Sondheim 1980) disguised as references and countless "the former" and "the latter"s. Many opinions are arrogantly offered with no clear examples, which is sadly typical of the "professor" mentality. I'm ashamed that my own college music lit professor is the editor of the series, and didn't ask the author to rewrite the book in a style meant to communicate rather than pontificate.
Dense material, but worth the work.......2002-04-13
As a Sondheim afficionado and serious music student, I adored this book and the insights it gave into the techincal aspects of Sondheim's compositions. As Banfield says in the introduction, too often the music isn't given the serious consideration compositionally that it deserves. Just a warning though, the book is really just about the music, there is fairly little discussion of the dramatic or theatrical aspects of Sondheim's work. That being said, this is an amazingly intelligent, in depth, and scholarly treatment of Sondheim purely as a composer.
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Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street
Company: A Musical Comedy
Assassins
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Sweeney Todd (2005 Broadway Revival Cast)
