Customer Reviews

On Broadway Men Still Wear Hats: Unusual Lives Led on the Edges of Broadway

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Backstage sleuth Robert Simonson is a better writer than many who cover what's happening in front of the footlights. In On Broadway, Men Still Wear Hats, he steps around to the rear entrances of the theatre scene and not only plumbs the often unusual careers of publicists, designers, and columnists, but pokes around the nuts-and-bolts of wardrobe and prop creation, the resale market for old Playbills, the NY Public Library's herculean task of preserving every review they can lay hands on, and the private, frequently touching lives of ordinary vendors and suppliers who, just by being a part of the district's daily routine, seem to number among the happiest and most colorful people on the planet. As he points out in his Introduction, he wrote this book because he found these characters intensely interesting, worthier of more than the meager recognition they usually receive, and set out to correct that. He's done a beautiful--and highly readable--job. We are all richer for this off-beat labor of love.

Full of telling details, this book is a gem about the theatrical milieu and its offbeat denizens. Huge amounts of warm, erudite fun for theatergoers of all kinds. And a perfect present for the theater aficianado you love! Simonson's book is highly recommended--a genuine treat.