Customer Reviews

150 Years of Popular Musical Theatre

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1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is TRYING to organize well the history of musical theatre, but he gets all jumbled where he talks about 1999 and then moves back to 1984 and then goes to 1997, and you just wonder where he is taking you, and you can easily get confused. He also made some false claims, especially about RENT, where he said that the creator died of AIDS on the night of the first preview. Johnathan Larson did not die of AIDS, and it was the opening night of the NYTW try out. He also makes vague generalizations of the plot and everything of different musicals, and he just isnt complete where he should have been, and instead wastes alot of the time with just boring pointless BLAH. If you want a good musical theatre book, don't look here.

This book is TRYING to organize well the history of musical theatre, but he gets all jumbled where he talks about 1999 and then moves back to 1984 and then goes to 1997, and you just wonder where he is taking you, and you can easily get confused. He also made some false claims, especially about RENT, where he said that the creator died of AIDS on the night of the first preview. Johnathan Larson did not die of AIDS, and it was the opening night of the NYTW try out. He also makes vague generalizations of the plot and everything of different musicals, and he just isnt complete where he should have been, and instead wastes alot of the time with just boring pointless BLAH. If you want a good musical theatre book, don't look here.

A couple of reviewers got their knickers in a knot because the author said the Rent guy died of aids and he didn't. This is an excellent overview of the genre and overall very well researched.

I just wanted to clear something up about a wonderful role model Jonathan Larson who created RENT. This book stated that he died of aids. Get your facts strait! After a visit to the hospital complaining of chest pains, he had been given an all-clear from the doctors. But then, a few days later, he suddenly died, at the age of 35, from an aortic aneurysm. It was the evening of the dress rehearsal. If you are going to write a book, maybe you should get your information correct.