Customer Reviews

Broadway Babylon

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Mildly enjoyable rehash of Broadway gossip. Hadleigh's over-reliance on pages (and pages) of standalone quotes on various topics (thesping, the problem with musicals, etc.) becomes monotonous after awhile.

And one of those quotes is jarringly wrong---on page 288, Hadleigh includes a comment from Madeline Kahn on Nathan Lane's success in "The Producers"---"The Producers" opened in 2001 and Kahn died in 1999. Oops.

This is a weird little scrapbook promoted as a book.

Hadleigh has two goals.

One is to make sure we know that a great many people working on or around Broadway are gay. Even when he is addressing topics unrelated to sexuality, he must get in that such-and-such was -- Wow! -- gay. But how many people who would buy this book have missed that there is a certain nexus between the gay world and the theatre world?

The other goal is to just dish, and that could make for a fun book. But what Hadleigh wants to dish about often makes him seem like someone who stepped out of a time machine from 1986.

This is a book most excited about the likes of Carol Channing, how bad CATS was, Michael Bennett, and AIDS. Except for the coverage of RENT, this book reads as if it was written two decades ago-plus by a show music fan of a certain age. Mary Martin? Harold Lang? THE BOYS IN THE BAND?

I suppose there is value in getting the nuggets Hadleigh has mined from dishy conversations in piano bars and after cabaret shows down in print, and I am sincere in that.

But readers going from the title will be disappointed. This book is largely a meandering anthropological survey of the Broadway scene from about 1948 to 1988. Special attention is paid to who was gay and which among them died of AIDS. Special attention is paid to performers and shows most of interest to people who were attending to the aforesaid scene during those years, and thus chapters on the controversy over Jonathan Pryce in MISS SAIGON, whether or not Ethel Merman was nice, and magnificently "floppish" shows (a cultish in-joke cherished largely by fans the age of Ken "Not Since Carrie" Mandelbaum).

One chapter follows another for no apparent reason; it's like a transcript of a conversation you could have with an august old gent at Don't Tell Momma's.

If you wouldn't mind having that conversation, pick this one up. Otherwise, be under no impression that this is, in the true sense, a book.

Disappointing isn't even the word. This is one of the most amateur excuses for a coherent book I've ever seen. Entire chapters are merely pulled quotes from various theatre-folk past and present on random subjects without any apparent point or organization. This isn't writing, it's editing by a publicist. What chapters are supposedly authored by this Boze Hadleigh are written without color or insight and explained as if to a Broadway novice, when--who are we kidding?--the only audience for this kind of thing is the Broadway afficianado. In appropriating the title "Broadway Babylon" Hadleigh doubtless wanted to invoke Kenneth Anger's legendary unmasking of Hollywood's seamier underside. Those expecting similar tales but of the Great White Way, will be doubly disappointed when they take stock of this cheap collection of card catalogue anecdotes and out of context quotations.

A mix of rather humorous, sometimes outlandish, sometimes unbelieveable quotes from various Broadway personalities and stories about the Great White Way, Boze Hadleigh's book is rather trashy, but entertaining to read on a rainy day when there's nothing better to do.
The book spends much too much time on the topic of homosexuality and the horrible AIDS crisis. Of course, this topic cannot be ignored as much of Broadway's community consists of gay men and AIDS was a disease that killed an entire gerneration of brilliant talents, but much of this becomes redundant and sometimes sort of bitchy.
On one final note, you could find plenty of these stories and one liners in other books as well. For the David Merrick section, Hadleigh seems to use bits from Jerry Herman's lovely memoir Showtune and for the Michael Bennett section, repeats of stories from Ken Mandelbaum's book appear. This could be said for numerous other chapters. Honestly, if you'd like to spend some extra cash, buy those various books instead of this one.

I stuck with this book for quite a while, despite the lazy writing, the catty and substanceless text and the fact that half the content consists of oft-repeated quotes.

I read an early chapter on the musical RENT. The chapter posits the notion that Jonathan Larson had largely plagiarized his landmark musical. Not from LA BOHEME, which he acknowledged as an inspiration and basis, but from an obscure 1990 novel called `People in Trouble." Hadleigh goes on to charge that Larson, who was straight, could not effectively write about gay love, and that RENT, while presenting a highly diverse group of characters, concluded with a message that the only real love is heterosexual love. In short, Hadleigh states that the straight Larson had no business writing about gay life.

Later in the book, Hadleigh's chapter on rumors addresses the frequently-heard claim that WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? was originally written for two gay male couples. This section contains the following statement: "Such a rumor owes much to the misconception that one can only write about what one knows." The author's hypocrisy is clear: If you're gay you can write about straight people, but it's not okay for heterosexuals to write about homosexuals.

This book is lazy writing at its worst. You'll find more about its subjects in wikipedia entries, and the pages and pages of quotes are readily accessible elsewhere as well.

As for its title, "Broadway Babylon" is likely to Anger anyone who loves "Hollywood Babylon." Forgive the pun.

Lots of Broadway dish and fun. I couldn't put it down. And I will re-read it many times. Hooray for this book!

This book by Boze Hadleigh is GREAT FUN! He always entertains without being really nasty in HIS comments about celebrities talking trash about other celebs.He let's THEM do it! His focus in this book is Broadway and if you love Broadway, you should find this book entertaining. Some quotes of stars are "repeats" from his other books, but they are well-placed and relevant to what is his focus.Don't expect any bombshells but DO expect to enjoy!
Note: If "Show Biz" is of no particular interest to you, you might want to skip Boze's new work.

This is a must have for every broadway fan. It tells the stories behind the hits and misses on the great white way. If you think you know the story wait until you read it here. How close some hits came to being misses! I could not put it down!