Customer Reviews

Kander and Ebb (Yale Broadway Masters Series)

5 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Kander and Ebb's autobiography Colored Lights, while a fine glimpse into their creative process, is not nearly as informative and interesting as this book. Thoroughly analyzing and covering their work for the theatre and creating unique portraits of each man (Kander being the warm, loving one and Ebb being acerbic and brash), this is a must read for musical theatre lovers!

Well-written, well-researched and revelatory in many ways. This book is a necessity for anyone interested in Musical Theatre. A perfect example of how to examine a Musical Theatre writer's career (in this case writers'). One of the very best books I have read on Musical Theatre.

When I purchased this book, I thought it would be more about the lives of the composers; more of their background, their experiences in greater detail, stories that told of their interaction with the directors and actors in their shows. Instead, this book reads like a music theory text-book; modalities, raising and lowering of scale degrees, vamp examples, etc. It took a lot of self-motivation to get from cover to cover. And the spelling errors and typos are too many to mention. Shame on the editors! Wait for a better book to come along about this fascinating team.