Sing for Your Supper: The Broadway Musical in the 1930s (Golden Age of the Broadway Musical) Review

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Sing for Your Supper: The Broadway Musical in the 1930s (Golden Age of the Broadway Musical) ReviewLet's face it. You're either going to want to buy this book, or you're not. Very few people out there will be swayed one way or another by these reviews. However, in the hope that there's still one or two people sitting on the fence, I offer my wholehearted recommendation. This book contains more information than you ever wanted to know about 1930s musicals, always opinionated, and often very funny, too.
Basically, if you've read any of Ethan Mordden's other books, you know what to expect. Analysis, information, and humor, all delivered from a gay right-wing perspective. Some other reviewers have bashed Mordden for this, but hey - it's his book. A lot of the fun in these books is the fact that they're written like Mordden is just eating lunch with you and talking about musicals. If Mordden wanted to adopt a more formal tone, I'm sure he'd keep his political views out of the book, but I don't think I'd get nearly as much pleasure from them.
Another thing I love about Mordden is his way of turning obscure theatre references into jokes. For example, how many people will laugh while reading the sentence, "There was some dancing, but nothing for Albertina Rausch to really sink her teeth into." See, it's funny because...but it's really not funny if you have to explain it. Also, there's a running joke about the number of different "Tamara"s who play leading roles in many 1930s shows. I read this stuff and I crack up, but when I read the passages out loud to my friends, they don't get it.
For those of you who are wondering if Mordden offers detailed analyses of the more important shows of the decade, the answer is yes, he does. He speaks in depth on the strengths and weaknesses of the Gershwin political shows, Porter's Jubilee, Kern's...well, all of Kern's 1930s shows, and Rodgers and Hart's On Your Toes, I'd Rather Be Right, and Boys From Syracuse, as well as Kurt Weill's 1930s shows and Blitzstein's Cradle Will Rock. I do wish he had gone into a little more detail about I Married An Angel, and surprisingly enough, his chapter on Porgy and Bess doesn't contain much new insight, but these are minor caveats.
My only other complaint is that this is the final book in his series, cause I don't want him to stop writing about musicals. Basically, if you love musicals, you should love this book. Because Mordden loves musicals, and you can see it in every page he writes.Sing for Your Supper: The Broadway Musical in the 1930s (Golden Age of the Broadway Musical) Overview

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Broadways Greatest Musicals 1977 Revised Edition Review

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Broadways Greatest Musicals 1977 Revised Edition ReviewA 519 page book of the American musical theatre, full of personal observation and the prevailing critical consensus. This is easy reading, sometimes spending 4 or 5 pages on a single musical, with gossip about the cast or a recent television appearance. Abe Laufe had an old-fashioned-gentleman prose style that is endearing and he clearly loved his work. The book begins with the early hits of 1884 and concludes with the arrival of 'A Chorus Line'. The last pages of this edition has an extensive list of hit musicals, replete with song-titles and original cast members.Broadways Greatest Musicals 1977 Revised Edition Overview

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Make Believe: The Broadway Musical in the 1920's Review

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Make Believe: The Broadway Musical in the 1920's ReviewEthan Mordden is one of the finest writers working in the area of musical theatre and opera. His insights are not only spot-on but witty and revealing. This book is another welcome addition to his works and to the works written about American musical theatre.
It is difficult to conceive what a fertile time the 1920's was for musicals. Today we consider ourselves very lucky to have more than eight new musicals open on Broadway in a season; back then, it was not uncommon to have more than five times that many. Mordden's skill lies in his ability to delineate the feel of the era, and he is able to dissect, with surgeon-like skill, the strengths and liabilities of each show he discusses.
He not only tackles the well-known shows of the decade ("Sally," "No, No, Nanette," "Good News," "Show Boat") but gives equal attention to the flops as well. Operetta and musical revues such as George White's Scandals or Ziegfeld's Follies are also given plenty of coverage. In fact, I can't think of a major show from this era that Mordden does not cover.
It is clear that Mordden loves and respects his subject. He knows, too, that many of the shows of this time are thin and poorly constructed, but he never sidesteps or apologizes for this material. If you are looking for hard-core facts, this is not the book for you: Mordden is somewhat skimpy in giving particular dates. But if you want an entertaining and comprehensive analysis of a dizzying time in the American theatre, give this book a try.Make Believe: The Broadway Musical in the 1920's Overview

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Beautiful Mornin': The Broadway Musical in the 1940s Review

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Beautiful Mornin': The Broadway Musical in the 1940s ReviewEthan Mordden is my favorite author of all time -- his breadth and depth of knowledge and critical acumen are utterly unsurpassed among writers on vintage American popular culture. In this book as in all of his others, the way he can, in a few quick, masterful strokes, make you feel like you are at an obscure, unrecorded musical which now exists only as yellowing files in a few libraries is nothing less than astounding. His combination of erudtion, wit and insight never fail to take my breath away. The decade-by-decade series of which this book is the third helps make life worth living, this one helping make sense of a particularly challenging ten years in musicals' history. Near the end, Mordden does indulge in some nervy speculations that could use some more backup, though. Was homophobia really the reason WHERE'S CHARLEY didn't get a cast album? If Porter's music for KISS ME, KATE was so good because he knew the score would be preserved on a record, then why didn't he keep writing at this level afterwards? Since SOUTH PACIFIC came at the end of the decade, we'd like it to be an apotheosis of the developments over that time, but would we really say that of this fine but chunky piece of work if it had come along in 1945? If the invention of the cast album was really why shows started running longer, then why have runs continued getting even longer since? Yet Mordden is such a treasure that one simply takes these as questions you wish you could take up with the master. Overall, no one writing in his bailiwick even approaches him; this book, like all of his work, is a national treasure.Beautiful Mornin': The Broadway Musical in the 1940s Overview

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All That Glittered: The Golden Age of Drama on Broadway, 1919-1959 Review

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All That Glittered: The Golden Age of Drama on Broadway, 1919-1959 ReviewEthan Mordden has written many books on the topic of Broadway, although generally they have been about the musical stage. This time he writes about plays, (mostly) without music, and rather arbitrarily defines, perhaps for purposes of symmetry, its golden age as the period between 1919 and 1959 (although he can't help himself and goes on into the 1960s a bit). As usual one is amazed at his encyclopedic knowledge of Broadway history; one can imagine him spending weeks and months, perhaps even years, in dusty libraries reading all those old copies of Variety, Playbill and the New York newspapers. His all-but-copyrighted bitchiness is much in evidence and gave me more than a few chuckles. His penchant for pointing who was gay among the actors, authors and directors, and for finding gay themes where they aren't obvious, is prominent.
He chronicles the Broadway spoken play by decade and finds something characteristic about each period. I found his writing, always sparkling, becomes more so when he gets to the 1940s and beyond, perhaps because those plays and the people who made them are within living memory for many people. Clearly Mordden (who is right at sixty, although his glamorous never-changing dustjacket picture hasn't changed in at least two decades) has had personal contact with many of the people mentioned in those latter years and he has some tales to tell.
Included are some pretty obscure plays and we are all the more informed for that. He writes much about the important actors, writers, producers and directors and we pick up a lot of theater lore as a result. His writing style is dense with fact and sometimes hermetic but it always dances along. I had difficulty putting the book down.
Another valuable book by Mordden, possibly primarily for specialists but assimilable by the casual reader with even a modicum of interest in the subject.
Scott MorrisonAll That Glittered: The Golden Age of Drama on Broadway, 1919-1959 Overview

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Coming up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s Review

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Coming up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s ReviewI'd probably enjoy reading a dictionary if Ethan Mordden wrote it. It's probably the highest praise I can give to say that this book had me reading about shows I'd never even heard of with the same zeal I'd generally reserve for a well-written suspense novel. As much as this book is about Musical Theater, it's about Ethan Mordden -- his wit, his stunning knowledge of his subject, and his ability to place what might seem trivial into a context that both illuminates and fascinates. Reading this book amounts to the best kind of education: one you simply can't wait to continue. As the previous customer reviews have already covered the general contents of this book, I'll only add that "Coming Up Roses" is one of a series of books by Mordden which catalogs the history of American Musical Theater. Before I even finished "Roses," I had purchased copies of his "Beautiful Mornin'" (about Musicals of the 1940's) and "Make Believe" (the 1920's). His next edition -- "Open a New Window: Musicals of the 1960's" -- will be published November 2001. I'm absolutely hooked, and if you have a passion for Musicals, you're going to be, too. About that title of mine....Mordden's book has me hunting in used record stores for recordings of long-forgotten (and sometimes obscure) titles. This author has done a tremendous service to countless composers, performers and theater artists in recalling their work in its original incarnation, and causing us to reflect upon it one more time. Maybe we're the lucky ones, in fact; thanks to Ethan Mordden, the curtain keeps going up again and again and again.Coming up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s Overview

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Broadway Babies: The People Who Made the American Musical Review

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Broadway Babies: The People Who Made the American Musical ReviewIf I could only have one book on the American musical this would be it. Mordden goes into much more detail in his decade by decade books on the genre, but his major themes, brash perceptions, and constant wit are laid out with style and precision in this volume, which takes the musical to the time of Sweeney Todd.Broadway Babies: The People Who Made the American Musical Overview

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Open a New Window: The Broadway Musical in the 1960s Review

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Open a New Window: The Broadway Musical in the 1960s ReviewEthan Mordden's Open a New Window (The Broadway Musical in the 1960's) continues his series looking at the development of musical theatre in New York decade by decade. This book has the burden of describing a decade that will more than likely be a great deal familiar to his readers, certainly more so than previous books. This is more than compensated for by just how personal the author makes the book. The volume interjects opinion into fact (on occasion, blending the two). This element is often quite enjoyable particularly in such juicy (and necessary) asides as George Abbott being taken down a couple of notches. This book is actually more fun as a read than previous volumes while still being consistently sharp in its analysis. A fine addition to this worthy series.Open a New Window: The Broadway Musical in the 1960s Overview

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