Customer Reviews

The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway

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Having lived in New York for so long it's scary how accurate "The Season" is, although written over 30 years ago.

Broadway has become a tourist trap with very little to offer serious theatergoers anymore except spectacle shows.

Each chapter in this book shows how Broadway was crippled with each passing season...and it makes sense that this is what it's come to.

But the book is very funny (especially the chapter on critics where he launches an all-out assault on then-New York Times reporter Clive Barnes) and explains everything you'll ever need to know about how plays and musicals are put together.

Oh, yes: there's plenty of dirt, gossip, anecdotes and name-dropping...Neil Simon, Carl Reiner, Tennessee Williams, David Merrick and NBC Reporter Edwin Newman drop in for cameos.

This is an extraordinary book. It is written by an author with a first class mind and genuine curiosity about his subject. Whilst one may not agree with all of it, the writing is a delight and he does not shirk dealing with controversial issues such as the influence of homosexuality on the stage and the corrupt financial practices in relation to theatre tickets, etc. Even though it was written for the 1967-1968 season, it still resonates and viewed in retrospect, it provides crucial evidence relative to the aetiology of the culture wars.

William Goldman's groundbreaking book The Season is all it's cracked up to be and more. Though a number of the people he deals with are no longer with us, many of the shows have been forgotten, and the ticket prices are quite a bit higher, it's astonishing how much the Broadway of the late 1960s resembles the Broadway of today. The same problems, the same headaches, the same disappointments, and the same triumphs are all still a part of the Great White Way. No Broadway enthusiast should be without this book; The Season is a stunning history--and current events--lesson on Broadway theatre.

Though this was written about a Broadway season back in the mid-'60s, Goldman's lively, opinionated writing makes this as fresh as ever. You may not agree with all of his conclusions, but he backs everything up with compelling facts and anecdotes. A great piece of journalism and one of the best books I've read all year.

I read this book when it came out and it is, without a doubt, the best, most complete and sometimes hilarious book on the theater you will ever read. Can't wait to read "What Lie Did I Tell"

William Goldman is not only a great screenwriter, but a wonderful writer of prose/criticism, as evidenced by "The Season," probaby the smartest, if not funniest, book ever written about the (sorry) state of Broadway. Here he tells you all you would want to know about the making of a Broadway show--all the compromises, betrayals, fits of ego, and under-the-table deals that keep the "fabulous invalid" (a phrase, by the way, that makes Mr. Goldman want to vomit) alive for another season. As a lover of theater, you may become depressed at the cynical machinations that go on to get what is, after all, usually pretty mediocre material to the stage; however, Mr. Goldman's prose is so crisp and entertaining that your spirit is ultimately lifted by his keen analysis. Although the patient is very sick, here's a doctor who has a prescription to offer. And all through the book, he does offer suggestions on how Broadway can better serves us, the theatergoers. Alas, the advice wasn't followed then (the late 60s), and it's not being followed today.

"The Season" is a revelation, the best book on theater I've read so far. It's foremost quality is that it demystifies the glitter-world of Broadway (and theater in general) and shows how theater really works (and, of course, how it doesn't). The audience normally only sees the result of combined efforts of many artists on a stage, but doesn't know how a play is composed and why some productions work and why some don't. Mr.Goldman succeeds wonderfully in showing how both the art and business side of a Broadway play contribute to its success or failure. And what's more: Goldman is witty, cynical, never boring - and so honest it almost hurts.

I read The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway when it first came out. I devoured it in one sitting, and loved every word. Back then, you could actually see a Broadway show without finding a co-signer and a sympathetic loan officer. We saw every show that Goldman discusses. I assure you that there has been nothing like that fabulous season on Broadway since.

If you have any interest in theatre and would like a book that will take you right back there into that fabulous moment of New York City history, do not miss reading William Goldman's The Season!

I read this book first in the 1980s, while I was actually working in the theater (and I had met a few of the people talked about in the book). What I like about it so much is that Goldman expresses his opinions, especially about the fare on Broadway at the time (not so good), the deficiencies of some of the actors and actresses and his sweeping view of the whole milieu. I don't always agree with him, but he's so incisive that you gain enormous respect for him, particularly when he's writing about Judy Garland, Sandy Dennis and Tom Stoppard. Students of theater history should turn to this book to find out what a bygone era (before huge corporations and nonprofits took over Broadway) was all about.

This book is it. It's just it. If you have any inclination at all to work in the theatre in any capacity, this book is required reading. Do not move to New York without it. I did, and I barely barely survived the few days it took me to find a copy. Order it now while you still have time! I'm serious!