Broadway Babies Say Goodnight : Musicals Then and Now [Paperback]

Mark Steyn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2000 | ISBN-10: 0415922879 | ISBN-13: 978-0415922876 | Edition: 1

The glorious tradition of the Broadway musical from Irving Berlin to Jerome Kern and Rodgers and Hammerstein to Stephen Sondheim. And then . . . Cats and Les Miz. Mark Steyn's Broadway Babies Say Goodnight is a sharp-eyed view of the whole span of Broadway musical history, seven decades of brilliant achievements the best of which are among the finest works American artists have made. Show Boat, Oklahoma!, Carousel, Gypsy, and more. In an energetic blend of musical history, analysis, and backstage chat, Mark Steyn shows us the genius behind the 'simple' musical, and asks hard questions about the British invasion of Broadway and the future of the form. In this delicious book he gives us geniuses and monsters, hits and atomic bombs, and the wonderful stories that prove show business is a business which -- as the song goes --there's no business like.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Is Broadway musical theater in terminal decline, fed intravenously from London, in headlong retreat to operetta certainties, emotional platitudes and vapidly luxuriant tunes? Almost, but not quite, suggests Steyn in this delightful, irreverent romp through seven decades of American musical theater from Show Boat to Miss Saigon. Taking the pulse of the Great White Way as a theater critic, he finds that Broadway shows have become amorphous creatures, products of the shifting interests of agglomerations of co-producers, fund-raisers, theater owners and provincial tour bookers. His breezy yet substantial surveya spontaneous mix of vibrant history, juicy gossip, plot and song analysis and pungent criticismloses its fizz about halfway through, yet it is filled with gimlet insights into the craft and business of musicals and valuable close-ups of old-timers (Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart and Hammerstein, novelist/lyricist P.G. Wodehouse, the Gershwins, Damn Yankees creator George Abbott, etc.) as well as more recent figures (such as producer David Merrick and choreographer/directors Bob Fosse and Michael Bennett). Separate in-depth chapters cover the massive creative contributions of Jews and gays to the Broadway musical; other chapters offer a scathing look at British musicals and skewer rock musicals from Hair to Rent. Along the way, Steyn memorably tweaks Andrew Lloyd Weber (a classic example of imperial overstretch), Stephen Sondheim and others. With encyclopedic knowledge and unabashed passion for the best of Broadway, Steyn explains how an art form has embedded itself into our cultural vocabulary.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Steyn, theater critic for the Wall Street Journal, has written a loosely focused set of chapters on various aspects of the musicalAmusic, lyrics, book, proceduresAand on the influence Jews, gays, and the British have had on the form. The best musicals (of which Gypsy, 1959, is his pick for all-time greatest) are like three-piece suits, in which book, lyrics, and music blend as an ensemble. The "invasion" of the British shows of Andrew Lloyd-Webber (Cats, etc.), the "age of the technomusical spectacle," and the increasingly self-referential nature of many recent shows have led to the "death of theatrical culture and its metaphorical power." Although his thesis is too simplistic and his argument poorly constructed, Steyn's extensive knowledge of the musical's history and his provocative commentary will be enjoyed by many musical theater buffs. Recommended for public and graduate-level academic libraries with strong performing arts collections.ARobert W. Melton, Univ. of Kansas Libs., Lawrence
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (April 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415922879
• ISBN-13: 978-0415922876
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #479,668 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Steyn is the author of America Alone: The End Of The World As We Know It, a New York Times bestseller in the United States and a Number One bestseller in Canada, where it was the subject of three separate complaints to the country's many 'human rights' commissions. Steyn is also National Review's Happy Warrior; a contributing editor to Canada's bestselling newsweekly, Maclean's; an internationally syndicated columnist; a visiting fellow at Hillsdale College; and a popular guest host of some of the highest-rated radio and TV talk shows.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Breath Of Fresh Air!, April 30, 2001

By 

Eric Paddon (Morristown, NJ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Broadway Babies Say Goodnight : Musicals Then and Now (Paperback)

It's usually quite lonely being a political conservative as I am, and also a devotee of Broadway musicals since for such a long time even in its now seemingly more "conservative" days of the tradtional book musical, Broadway was always the domain of men who possessed very poltically left wing points of view. But during the heyday of Broadway's golden age, liberals like Lerner and Loewe, Rodgers And Hammerstein etc. knew that their audiences were comprised of diverse viewpoints and hence strove first to just entertain with a minimum of social commentary (when Lerner in his advancing years succumbed to the desire to be pretentious, the results, "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" and "Dance A Little Closer" ended up disappearing in a week and are now deservedly forgotten). Such is not the case with today's Broadway where not only are all new musicals and plays usually loaded with radical left wing social commentary but even the musical revivals are subject to PC rewrites to satisfy today's narrow audience of those on the far left (case in point, the tamperings in "Damn Yankees" which this book comments on, concerning the tacky aside about J. Edgar Hoover which doesn't work in the musical's book and is the biggest exercise of self-indulgence so typical of the arrogant left wing mindset that dominates today's theater).

As such, it is a wonderful breath of fresh air to find this book by Mark Steyn, a theater critic who happens to be a political conservative, offering a good deal of telling insights as to why Broadway has largely lost its way the last couple decades, though it is very unfair and typical of the left-wing arrogance of some of the writers below that all of his criticisms are rooted in his ideology. To blast today's musicals on their inability to provide a good integrated score and book, as well as good songs is the kind of criticism that a liberal like Richard Rodgers, who walked out of "Hair" after Act One, would have no problem with. (Indeed, apart from "Memory" when was the last time a Broadway song made into the standard repertoire of American popular music?) Steyn proves to be provacative at times, and also very funny as well on a number of occasions that you have to applaud his brilliance even if you don't end up agreeing with him all the time. His chapter on Stephen Sondheim is priceless, showing the strange contradiction of how the works of Sondheim that are so timeless in their appeal ("West Side Story" and "Gypsy") are the ones that are put down the most by his most die-hard fans in favor of his forgettable flops.

One other note to [e-mail] who likes to use the term "McCarthyism" with the same reckless abandon so typical of the militant left, yet like so many of its members does so in total ignorance of the actual events that spawned the term. One, Senator McCarthy didn't send anyone to jail, and two he had nothing to do with the investigation of Hollywood Communists (all of whom went to jail for the very real crime of contempt of Congress, not their poltical beliefs and the fact that they were leftists or in some cases committed Stalin bootlickers). "McCarthyism" is a term which in its proper context refers to unproved or reckless accusations against someone with the intent to damage or smear merely beacuse of one's political associations. It has nothing to do with sending people to jail for their beliefs. And in its proper context, [e-mail] by smearing Mark Steyn because he is a conservative who writes for the American Spectator on occasion, is the true practitioner of "McCarthyism" in the end.

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best review of Broadway in years, September 2, 2002

By 

Matthew Asnip "bibliophile" (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Broadway Babies Say Goodnight : Musicals Then and Now (Paperback)

The Great White Way is in trouble. It's condition is terminal but not serious, as the Russians say. Whatever you think of the causes for that, you will enjoy this book, if you love theatre. Mr. Steyn provides an excellent, if short history of Broadway, interspersed with lively criticism of the 'state of the stage'. Sondheim, in particular, receives some cutting thrusts. Reading it, I alternatively wanted to shout in Mr. Steyn's face and shake him by the hand. I laughed, I cried, I threw the book across the room at least three times, but I couldn't put it down.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A history of Broadway as told by one who love's it, July 25, 2004

By 

Alan J. Weick (Paramus, New Jesey) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Broadway Babies Say Goodnight: Musicals Then and Now (Hardcover)

This is one of those gem of a books that come along every once in a while. After the first reading I started all over again. The writing is that good. The book is laid out like a Broadway show, dividing itself into a two act play with scenes. In Act I, Mr. Steyn traces the evolution of the musical from its beginnings in Vienna through its importation to the America by European trained musicians to its eventual takeover and refinement by American composers. We see the beautiful progression from the dance hall Ziegfeld folly to organic synthesis of music and dialog in such wonderful works of art as Show Boat and Fiddler on the Roof. Act II is the decline and fall of this wonderful artform as it reverts back to its operatic beginnings with such good shows like A Chorus Line and Chicago to abominations like Cats and Starlight Express.

This is an author who loves his subject. His first hand interviews with some of the great luminaries of the Broadway theater like Jules Styne, George Abbott, and Cy Coleman bring the backstage evolution of the musical to life. His marvelous command of the English language make the subject matter even more interesting.

The other reviewers who suggest "homophobia" on Steyn's part are way off base. It is his forthright acknowledgement of gay accomplishment in the theater along with the terrible scourge of AIDS that has had a significant impact on the musical because its greatest modern practitioners are dying off without passing on their wisdom. Of what relevance is the fact that Steyn is a political conservative or a sometime writer for the Wall Street Journal have anything to do with the subject of Broadway musicals?

Enjoy this book for what it is; a glorious paean to a great art form.