The Voodoo That They Did So Well: The Wizards Who Invented the New York Stage [Hardcover]

Stefan Kanfer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 6, 2007

Manhattanites have always had a disdain for the rearview mirror. That's where trends begin, and the citizens of Gotham are concerned with the here and now rather than the then and there. Yet Manhattan's history is rich, filled with personalities who helped create the modern theater and made Broadway the center of show business-a distinction it still holds. The Voodoo That They Did So Well takes an endearing look at some of these giants. Stefan Kanfer writes about Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, and Stephen Sondheim, and considers the shining stars of New York's vibrant Yiddish theater, the colorful personalities who starred in two-a-day vaudeville, and the astonishing life of Lorenzo Da Ponte, a Renaissance man if ever there was one (Mozart's most brilliant collaborator landed in Manhattan after dazzling Europe, and wound up selling groceries and teaching Italian at Columbia University). Richard Rodgers's first song hit was "Manhattan," with lyrics by Lorenz Hart. The chorus read: "The great big city's a wondrous toy / Just made for a girl and boy / We'll turn Manhattan / Into an isle of joy." Manhattan remains an isle of joy in large part because of the men and women who led the way, and whose lives and art animate every page of this delightful gavotte.

Editorial Reviews

Review

I'm behind anybody 100% who quotes Cole Porter. And by the way, what a writer Kanfer is! I'm thinking seriously of trusting him wth my life. (Elaine Stritch, former Broadway diva )

...celebrates past and present theater notables who made Broadway the heart of showbiz. (Publisher's Weekly )

Entertainingly rendered examination....a marvelous writer....Lots of good stuff packed into a tight little book. (Blue Ridge Business Journal )

Mr. Kanfer's essays...are filled with such piquant biographical detail. (Erich Eichman Wall Street Journal )

An outstanding, lively history, this will appeal to any collection strong in Broadway history and analysis. (Internet Bookwatch )

This book offers an affectionate glance back at several of the major figures whose work has impacted the development of New York's theatre world into an institution of mythic proportions. (New Theater Quarterly )

The book is a useful and successful effort to inform the present American public about the giants who legitimized vaudeville and the musical on the New York stage and consequently elsewhere. (Journal Of American Culture )

About the Author

Stefan Kanfer's writings and criticism have appeared in most major publications, and his more recent books include Stardust Lost: A History of the Yiddish Theater; Ball of Fire, about the sources of Lucille Ball's comedy; Groucho; and The Last Empire, a social history of the De Beers diamond company. At Time magazine for more than twenty years, he is now a contributing editor of City Journal and a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library. He lives in Hastings on Hudson, New York.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee (June 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156663735X
• ISBN-13: 978-1566637350
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,831,451 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Revue, Not a Book Musical, June 20, 2007

By 

S. Berner (Cocoa, Fl USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Voodoo That They Did So Well: The Wizards Who Invented the New York Stage (Hardcover)

Though one would be hard put to discover it from the cover or jacket copy, "Voodoo" is not an history of the N.Y. stage, but a collection of 8 separate articles, mostly for the "City Journal", that are tied to one degree or another with the Broadway theater. Nonetheless, each article is so well done and so entertaining that one is tempted to forgive this minor deceit... and one readily succumbs to the temptation. So, if we realize that it's more than a bit of a stretch tying in reminiscences of Vaudville or the Yiddish theater ( subject of Mr. Kanfer's "Stardust Lost") with mini-bios of Berlin, Porter, Gershwin, Rodgers, Sondheim, etc., we forgive it. Likewise, if we note that Kanfer has confused Betty Grable with Ginger Rogers in "The Shocking Miss Pilgrim", we're tempted to shrug and say: "Oh, well, one blond conservative is pretty much like the next!" And, once again, readily succumb to the temptation. In short, if you take this for what it IS, and not what it's publishers might wish you to THINK it is, you'll have a marvelous time.

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Unnecessary, and bad to boot, June 4, 2008

By 

Scott Ross "Playwright" (Raleigh NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Voodoo That They Did So Well: The Wizards Who Invented the New York Stage (Hardcover)

Stefan Kanfer is beginning to get a reputation for appalling errors in his would-be authoritative overviews (see Amazon reviews of his book on Yiddish theatre). With this one, he claims that Cole Porter's grandfather "was one of the richest men in Ohio" (Ohio, Indiana -- ahh, what's the difference?) and that Ginger Rogers starred in the charming movie musical "The Shocking Miss Pilgrim" when, of course, he means Betty Grable.

Worse than these mistakes of scholarship, however, are his judgments. When he cites Ira Gershwin's lyric "I'm a Poached Egg," written for the Billy Wilder-I.A.L. Diamond comedy "Kiss Me, Stupid," Kanfer does a rant against current pop music, ending with "We're all poached eggs now." What he doesn't seem to have recognized, in his hurry to appropriate the phrase, is that Gershwin was writing a deliberately bad number for two characters in the movie, aspirant tunesmiths who write perfectly dreadful songs.

Then there's the matter of Stephen Sondheim. Granted that each of us must perforce have a license to see things in our own fashion and through the prism of personal taste, how is one to take seriously a critic who can write a line like, "[...] it is unlikely that fifty years from now popular entertainers will sing his songs"? Kanfer is, additionally, so high on the vastly overrated Ira Gershwin -- how I loathe that overworked phrase "The Jeweler" -- he can only excoriate Sondheim for his (quite accurate) description of Ira as "self-conscious." Gershwin's rhymes aren't generally as convoluted as Larry Hart's, but they run a close second.

This is a very bad book, and a nearly useless one. It merely re-treads ground that others -- critics, theatre historians, biographers -- have trampled more than abundantly. Aside from a moderately illuminating chapter on Lorenzo Da Ponte, there is nothing here that couldn't be gleaned elsewhere, and in books written with far greater acumen, not to mention accuracy.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding, lively history, this will appeal to any collection strong in Broadway history and analysis., September 2, 2007

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Voodoo That They Did So Well: The Wizards Who Invented the New York Stage (Hardcover)

THE VOODOO THAT THEY DID SO WELL: THE WIZARDS WHO INVENTED THE NEW YORK STAGE is a top pick for any serious Broadway or musical theatre collection: it surveys Manhattan's musical theater history, bringing to life the major names of the industry and the stars of New York's Yiddish theater and placing their lives and achievements in context of a broader survey of Manhattan theatre history. An outstanding, lively history, this will appeal to any collection strong in Broadway history and analysis.