Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer met as undergraduates at New York University. The coauthors of five critically acclaimed oral histories, they are cultural historians with a focus on New York City. They are also professors in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program at Dartmouth College. They live in Lyme, New Hampshire.
There’s no people like show people to take you behind the scenes
[of Broadway theater]. The Frommers haven’t written a history of
Broadway. They’ve woven one from the recollections of an all-star
cast of more than one hundred actors, directors, producers,
designers, choreographers, publicists, authors, composers, and even
critics.
*The San Francisco Examiner*
A chorus of more than 100 voices, including stars, celebrities,
producers, costume designers, critics, sons and daughters of
Broadway greats lend this oral history of Broadway theater over the
past 60 years the heady excitement of a blockbuster show. The
editors, whose previous titles include It Happened in Brooklyn and
It Happened in the Catskills, understand that what readers want are
tales of magic and legend, but here they devote more attention to
the drudgery and brute perseverance that go into every Broadway
success. Following the lead of Jeff Kisseloff's oral history of
television, The Box, the Frommers tell the history of the medium,
rather than of individual shows and performances, though there are
plenty of those represented here, too. ‘The first time I ever set
foot on-stage was in grammar school,’ begins Carol Channing, the
book's first speaker. The remembrances . . . of Broadway debuts, of
its richest era following WW II, of famous musicals and comedies,
stars, hits and unexpected flops and a string of laments over what
‘Broadway no longer’ is today move so seamlessly you often have to
check back to see who's speaking. Charles Durning remembers the
first laugh he got on stage. John Raitt describes almost not
getting to replace the lead in Oklahoma! because he couldn't fit
into Alfred Drake's costume. John Lahr says his comedian father
‘could get a laugh on a conjunction.’ Interspersed with stage and
backstage photos, caricatures, playbills and posters, the hundreds
of magical, informative . . . never boring stories the Frommers
have gathered demonstrate what it took to fill those seats.
*Publishers Weekly*
The Frommers, both professors at Dartmouth, specialize in oral
histories. . . . Here they provide a fascinating look at Broadway
from different perspectives, including interviews with actors,
directors, producers, composers, lyricists, playwrights, stage
managers, set designers, and critics. The authors have cast a wide
net and drawn in voices from past and present.
*Library Journal*
An oral history of Broadway by the people who lived it, this volume
encompasses the triumphs and glorious failures, fights and
betrayals, dedication, and drudgery.
*Ingram*
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