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Book Review: The Complete Book of 1980s Broadway Musicals by Dan Dietz

Author: Dan Dietz
Title: The Complete Book of 1980s Broadway Musicals
Other Books Read by the Same Author:

Publication Info: Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield, [2016]
Summary/Review:

While I didn’t attend many Broadway shows in the 1980s, growing up in the greater New York City area meant marinating in commercials, TV appearances, and references/parodies of the latest shows. So I have a certain nostalgia for 1980s Broadway. That being said, it was a tough decade for American musical theater. A lot of shows bombed, most notoriously Carrie, although that seemed at least an attempt to try something new. Throughout the decade, Broadway seemed obsessed with book musicals and revues based on vaudeville and burlesque, the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression, the Harlem Renaissance and gospel music. Dan Dietz jokes that there are several songs that appeared in more than one of these musicals.

Despite the struggles, some notable shows include 42nd Street, Dreamgirls, La Cage aux Folles, Big River, Grand Hotel, Barnum, City of Angels, My One and Only, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Nine, and Sophisticated Ladies. Stephen Sondheim created three thoughtful works: one that would have to wait 40 years for success (Merrily We Roll Along) and two that were immediate hits (Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods). But the big story of the decade was imported shows – the so-called British Invasion and the birth of the mega-musical. This includes Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats, Starlight Express, The Phantom of the Opera, and Aspects of Love, as well as Les Miserables, Me and My Girl, and Chess.

Dietz’s work remains fun to read for all its facts and details, although he tends to be opinionated and cranky about so-called “political correctness.” He sees the emergence of the mega-musical as negative for Broadway, for which he has a good point as it regards getting smaller and medium-sized productions a chance. He also dislikes the growth of revivals, noting: “during the 1960s there were ninety-eight book musicals with new music and one commercial revival, but from 2000 to 2009 there were thirty-eight musicals with new musicals and forty-two revivals.”

Personally, I don’t object to revivals so much as there are a lot of older classics that people never had a chance to see. But the combination of revivals with mega-musicals running for decades leaves very little space for new and innovative productions. It might be more beneficial of artistry if instead of a show like The Phantom of the Opera running for three decades continuously with replacement casts, if maybe there were five one-year revivals with new casts in the same time period? But the economics of Broadway would not allow that model to make a profit.

Rating: ***

#BookReviews #Books #Broadway #MusicalTheater #Refeference #Theater

Book Review: The Complete Book of 1930s Broadway Musicals by Dan Dietz

Author: Dan Dietz Title: The Complete Book of 1930s Broadway Musicals Publication Info: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2018] Other Books Read By the Same Author: The Complete Book of 1940s Bro…

Panorama of the Mountains

Matilda T. ZombieQueen 1d ago

Review: Out Here, Court Theatre, Chicago

https://www.talkinbroadway.com/page/regional/chicago/ch880.html

#review #theater #theatre #MusicalTheater #MusicalTheatre #chicago #writing

2something 4d ago

The part of the musical 1776 that seems the least realistic today is all the conservatives' attitude towards starting a war they aren't sure they can win. Imagine if when Trump decided to invade Iran, all the congressional Republicans started singing

What we do we do rationally
We never ever go off half-cocked not we
Why begin till we know that we can win?
And if we cannot win why bother to begin?and voted against the war?

#1776 #MusicalTheater

2something Apr 19

Saw a regional production of 1776 today. It had been almost 20 years since I last saw it, but when I was a kid my parents played the music in the car a lot, so I still felt like I remembered all the songs pretty well. But dang, I'd forgotten about the intense irony in some of Franklin's lines.

The Franklin in the musical says the founding fathers will be remembered as ordinary men, not as gods. Peter Stone uses Franklin's mouth to criticize the lionization of the members of the Second Continental Congress (while ironically contributing to the lionization of George Washington).

Also, the cast album I used to listen do didn't have the introduction section of "Is Anybody There," so I forgot about that part of the song entirely until today.

And even though I knew it was coming, I still laughed pretty hard at the "surprise" coda to "The Lees of Old Virginia."

#1776 #MusicalTheater

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"A light-hearted number about a serial killer who gets arrested because he can't stop talking about his 'work.'"

https://getmusic.fm/l/zcbkCy

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Panorama of the Mountains Apr 3

Book Review: The Complete Book of 1970s Broadway Musicals by Dan Dietz

Author: Dan Dietz
Title: The Complete Book of 1970s Broadway Musicals
Publication Info: Rowman & Littlefield (2015)
Other Books Read by the Same Author:

Summary/Review:

The 1970s is the first decade in this series that coincides with my own life, and the first Broadway shows I ever attended opened in the 70s, although I don’t think I saw any of them until 1980 (if you’re curious they are Annie, the Sandy Duncan revival of Peter Pan, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at Radio City Music Hall). The decade is notable for concept musicals with mood and atmosphere being more significant traditional storytelling becoming a Broadway staple. Hit musicals debuting in the 1970s included Ain’t Misbehavin’, Annie, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Chicago, A Chorus Line, Company, Evita, Follies, Godspell, Grease, Jesus Christ Superstar, A Little Night Music, On the Twentieth Century, Pippin, Sweeney Todd, and The Wiz. The biggest of all these shows was A Chorus Line, which broke a lot of Broadway records although both Dietz and the critics found the group therapy aspect to be too indulgent. Dietz preferred Chicago which opened a month earlier and was overshadowed in awards recognition, but got the last laugh as it’s 1996 revival continues on Broadway to this day.

I’ve noted in previous reviews that Dietz is cranky about so-called “political correctness” and thus is particularly disparaging of the many shows that grew out of the counterculture and civil rights era. That being said, a lot of the contemporary critics also noted that the productions were heavy-handed in their messages and that “experiential theater” could make it heard to see and hear the performance. That being said, I would’ve loved to see the revival of Candide where they gutted the orchestra level seating and performed on interconnected platforms within the house. The sexual revolution also left it’s mark in productions such as Oh! Calcutta, Let My People Come, and I Love My Wife which all seem puerile in their exploration of sexuality.

While personality revues were nothing new, the 1970s saw a big uptick in concert/nightclub performances on Broadway stages by artists including Josephine Baker, Bette Middler, Liza Minnelli, Sammy Davis, Jr., The 5th Dimension, Harry Chapin, Seals and Croft, Diana Ross, Debbie Reynolds, Bing Crosby, Barry Manilow, and Lou Rawls. There were also an increasing number of tribute revues that included performances of songs by a particular creator including Rodgers and Hart, Edith Piaf, Fats Waller, Eubie Blake, Kurt Weill, Stephen Sondheim (notable since he was alive and still creating new shows), Elvis Presley, and The Beatles. Dietz doesn’t mention this, but I suspect the fiscal crisis and rise in crime in New York made it harder for Broadway theaters to draw audiences and so they turned to these crowd-pleasers.

Rating: ***

#BookReviews #Books #MusicalTheater #Reference #Theater

Book Review: The Complete Book of 1930s Broadway Musicals by Dan Dietz

Author: Dan Dietz Title: The Complete Book of 1930s Broadway Musicals Publication Info: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2018] Other Books Read By the Same Author: The Complete Book of 1940s Bro…

Panorama of the Mountains

The Mad Codger Mar 21

Seeing #AvenueQ at the Brunish Theater, which I did not know existed. 20 years of going to the Schnitz and Keller, I don't know that I've ever been in this building.

#pdx #musicaltheater

2something Mar 1

I saw Chess on Broadway today. Let's start with the good stuff.

The score remains among my favorite of any musical. Every song is excellent, from the Overture all the way to "You and I." The only downside is there isn't time to include every great song from every past version of Chess, with perhaps the most notable exclusion being "The Russian and Molokov." I was surprised by the placement of several songs, notably placing "Someone Else's Story" anfter "Endgame," but they all worked.

The orchestra and cast were all spectacular, with the lead trio Aaron Tveit, Leah Michele, and Nicholas Christopher pulling me into a trance each time they sang. The picture of Lea Michele I had in my head before today was the girl on Glee, but she embodied Florence in a way that rivaled past stars Elaine Paige, Judy Kuhn, and Cassidy Janson. I'd likewise place Christopher in my top three Anatolys, along with Michael Ball and Tommy Körberg. I was a bit skeptical of him in the opening, but as he gets closer to Florence he opens up his emotions more, and he completely brought down the house during "Anthem" and "Endgame" Tveit, meanwhile, is far and away the best Freddie I have ever seen.

Danny Strong's new book gives Freddie bipolar disorder, showing him with manic episodes at the beginning of the story, and show a positive side to his relationship with Florence. We also see Freddie resent the pressure that comes from being a national champion since age 11. The changes give Freddie depth I have never seen in previous productions, and Tveit brings him to life with a physicality, voice, and movement that pulls me in. During a couple of songs, Tveit swung on bars in a manner reminiscent of what he did in Next to Normal while still singing. I wonder if Tveit talked with Alice Ripely about portraying someone dealing with bipolar disorder. When Florence and Freddie break up, it hits much harder than in any previous production I've seen, due to Freddie having more depth and excellent performances by Michele and Tveit. During "Endgame," Freddie sings some parts of the song that have traditionally been sung by the ensemble, and the difference in his portrayal from earlier productions brings a new energy to a song I've heard hundreds of times.

Strong also establishes that Florence and Anatoly already knew each other and expressed mutual attraction prior to the start of the show. Moreover, we are told four years pass betweet acts, giving much more time for Florence and Anatoly's relationship to develop, further increasing the tension when their relationship is threatened.

Hannah Cruz brings a jaded, cynical attitude to Svetlana that pleasantly surprised me. Also carrying over from the original Broadway cast is the reprise of "Where I Want to Be," sung by Svetlana and Anatoly. New to this production, Strong has Svetlana find Florence's weakness. Florence ultimately tells Anatoly he should go back to the USSR: Not because of her father, but so that his kids can have their father.

Now, let's move on to the stuff that is not as good. Bryce Pinkham's Arbiter is the narrator for the show, and he frequently speaks in a tongue-in-cheek humorous tone, with jokes that are at odds with the solemn authority The Arbiter projects during his epynomous song, as well as "Quartet" and "The Deal." The subject matter of the show is serious, and the main trio all deal with serious issues in a serious tone singing serious songs, only for the narrator to interrupt with jokes. Walter and Molokov also joke with each other, but this feels much more in keeping with their characters.

The creative team made efforts to keep the story relevant to audiences born long after the cold war ended, with mixed effects. One part I really liked was when Walter threatened Florence with deportation to Hungry. Less effective was when The Arbiter sarcastically mentioned politicians from the 2020s by name, which pulled me out of the story and into the present. I believe the story is sufficiently relevant to critique modern politics without needing to explicitly name any real contemperary politicians, and audiences are already going to think about one partuclar person due to Freddie's last name.

There were more scenes than usual of Molokov and Walter negotiating, and so I was surprised we didn't hear them perform "Let's Work Together" from the original Broadway production.

The song that gave me the most mixed feelings was "The Interview." The stronger relationships between the lead trio give a stronger payoff when they reunite on TV. But, as with the original West End production, Freddie only has a pre-recorded video of Svetlana. I believe this is a step down from the 2018 West End production, when Freddie surprises Anatoly by revealing Svetlana and her son are actually in the station in person. We ultimately don't see Anatoly's kids at all during the show, which weakens the ending in which his kids are the reason he returns to Russia.

But all my criticisms vanished from my mind as Florence and Anatoly embraced for the final time during "You and I." The score, cast, and orchestra make up for any faults I may find with the book for one of the most enjoyable Broadway experiences of my adult life.

#Chess #MusicalTheater