From Library Journal
The brothers Shubert Sam, Lee, and J.J. are synonymous with 20th-century American theater. At the zenith of their magisterial reign, the Shubert empire encompassed 104 playhouses, theatrical bookings into 1000 theaters across the country, and the development of hundreds of Broadway plays, musicals, and revues. This drop-dead gorgeous tome is a visual and archival love song to the Shuberts and their entertainment dynasty. Arranged sequentially by street, the work dwells on the 17 Broadway theaters still in the Shubert stable. Legendary palaces like the Belasco, Majestic, Booth, Shubert, and Imperial are feted, with hundreds of detailed historical and contemporary architectural photographs, production stills, splashy gatefolds, and memorabilia mined from the Shubert archival repository by an accomplished collaborative team from the Shubert Organization, who also provide an engaging and active text. Affordably priced, this is the drama queen of the theatrical publishing season. A standing ovation to Abrams and the Shubert Organization; a Bronx cheer to anyone who takes a pass. Barry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TX
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
In the early twentieth century, the Shubert brothers--Sam, J. J., and Lee--were a powerful force in commercial theater throughout America. They helped unite producers and independent theater owners against the powerful syndicate that controlled access to a nationwide network of theaters and ended its monopoly. Ironically, their later success exerted a monopolistic force of its own, and today the Shubert Organization remains a force to be reckoned with. This lavishly illustrated coffee table book celebrates the organization's first century with page after tightly crammed page of posters, publicity stills, rehearsal photos, and newspaper clippings culled from the Shuberts' extensive archives. Making the book altogether extraordinary are the extensive photographs of the interiors of nearly every lavish theater, from the Belasco to the Winter Garden, that the Shuberts owned or built in New York, plus a smattering of "out-of-town" houses in Boston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. A number of very short, bland informative essays, notably including Gerald Schoenfeld's on the Shubert brothers, are here, too.
Jack HelbigCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
