25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another masterpiece, even when walking the edge, October 21, 1999
This review is from: Beautiful Mornin': The Broadway Musical in the 1940s (Hardcover)
Ethan Mordden is my favorite author of all time -- his breadth and depth of knowledge and critical acumen are utterly unsurpassed among writers on vintage American popular culture. In this book as in all of his others, the way he can, in a few quick, masterful strokes, make you feel like you are at an obscure, unrecorded musical which now exists only as yellowing files in a few libraries is nothing less than astounding. His combination of erudtion, wit and insight never fail to take my breath away. The decade-by-decade series of which this book is the third helps make life worth living, this one helping make sense of a particularly challenging ten years in musicals' history. Near the end, Mordden does indulge in some nervy speculations that could use some more backup, though. Was homophobia really the reason WHERE'S CHARLEY didn't get a cast album? If Porter's music for KISS ME, KATE was so good because he knew the score would be preserved on a record, then why didn't he keep writing at this level afterwards? Since SOUTH PACIFIC came at the end of the decade, we'd like it to be an apotheosis of the developments over that time, but would we really say that of this fine but chunky piece of work if it had come along in 1945? If the invention of the cast album was really why shows started running longer, then why have runs continued getting even longer since? Yet Mordden is such a treasure that one simply takes these as questions you wish you could take up with the master. Overall, no one writing in his bailiwick even approaches him; this book, like all of his work, is a national treasure.
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4 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Stars Shone ON Broadway With Songs., August 31, 2006
This review is from: Beautiful Mornin': The Broadway Musical in the 1940s (Hardcover)
The American musical on Broadway is invented in the 1920s, suffers an artistic setback in the financially oppressed and conservative 1930s, but at last reflowers for good in the 1940s. This is called the Golden Age of drama and music bonded together. Before, it was fit but primitive; it has become rich and sophisticated and has status, a powerful economic base, and became known globally important, like Coca Cola. The musical is American: democratic, fast-moving, and innovative.
They started as "revues" with a multitude of stars, like Jane Froman from Missouri, Ray Bolger, Jimmy Durante, Jackie Gleason, Ilka Chase (seems I remember seeing her on a game show in the 50s), Emmet Kelly, Ed Wynn, and Eddie Cantor. Eddie was in "Banjo Eyes" and was nicknamed such because of his outlandish makeup a la Al Jolson in the minstrels. Eddie was my star member of the Fisher Notes, the Eddie Fisher fanclub. Cantor is the person responsible for discovering Eddie in the Catskills and making him known to the teenbobbers of America. In the early 40s, Carol Channing was Dolly in "Hello Dolly" (one of Chuck's favorite songs to play) and Ethel Merman, the one with the very loud voice, was Gypsy Rose Lee's Mama in "Gypsy." She went from "Girl Crazy" in 1930 to "Gypsy" in 1959. A long career on Broadway and in the movies/
Some of the best songs came from this era: "Wunderbar," "So In Love," "Happy Talk," "This Nearly Was Mine," "Brush Up Your Shakespeare," and "A Cockeyed Optimist" are some examples of the variety in the Broadway musicals. The greatest was "Soliloquy" in 'Carousel,' and "Oh What A Beautiful Morning" from 'Oklahoma,' formerly the drama named "Green Grow the Lilacs." 'South Pacific' won the Pultizer Prize for drama but had some fantastic musical numbers. I loved the Irish 'Brigadoon' of the lost Shangrila which comes alive only one day each year. I loved Howard Keel as he appeared in 'The Vagabond King,' and Gene Kelly in 'On The Town.' 'Finiagan's Rainbow' was another Irish tale with jolly songs. "Only Make Believe" in 'Showboat' was moving and real. And who could ever forget 'Kiss Me Kate." There were black musicals totally like 'Carmen Jones,' and 'Cabin in the Sky.'
Helen Morgan was great in 'Showboat" (Howard Keel was the male star in the movie) and Mary Martin shone as nurse Forbush in 'South Pacific.' These are just a few of the music shows we will always remember, as those songs are still played on the radio today. The Forties on Broadway was just the beginning as things picked up considerably in the Fifties, and these were made into Technicolor movies for us who loved music to enjoy in air-conditioned comfort.
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4 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A lot of air but little substance, March 23, 2000
This review is from: Beautiful Mornin': The Broadway Musical in the 1940s (Hardcover)
Ethan Mordden's theater-related writing has been on a steady decline, especially in this verbose and increasingly obtuse decade by decade series on 20th century Broadway musicals. It has reached a point where once can learn more about musicals from Mordden's fiction. Come on Mr. Mordden -- we came to expect much more from you than this kind of tired rehash.
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