The Musical Theatre Writer's Survival Guide

by David Spencer

David Spencer has written a book full of truths a young writer will not find articulated anywhere else. Most of us in the theatre gained our "experience" by making mistakes and learning from them. David's book lets you gain the "experience" and skip the mistakes part. Anyone maneuvering the treacherous waters of musicals will find it not nearly so lonely or baffling with this remarkable volume as a companion.
Richard Maltby, Jr., Director/Lyricist, Miss Saigon , Ain't Misbehavin' , Baby Consider The Musical Theatre Writer's Survival Guide your new best friend in the business.
Alan Menken, Oscar recipient and Tony-Award nominee, composer, Little Shop of Horrors and Beauty and the Beast At long a how-to book written by someone who actually knows how to. It hits so many nails on the head I could barely get through it for the sound of all that hammering.
Larry Gelbart, Award-winning co-librettist, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and librettist, City of Angels For its practitioners, musical theatre is an art, a passion, and a lifelong love. But it's also a complex landscape involving not merely principles of craft about book, music and lyrics, but also principles of collaboration, script/demo presentation, project/production development, venue, business, andeverybody's area of uncertaintypolitics. In The Musical Theatre Writer's Survival Guide , award-winning musical dramatist and teacher David Spencer provides a guide-to-the-game that helps you negotiate all those aspects of the business and more. This professional handbook will walk you If you're taking your first steps, Spencer's counsel, anecdotes, and instructions will save you years of blindly stumbling about without results. Likewise, if you've been around the block a few times, The Musical Theatre Writer's Survival Guide can rescue you from the kinds of career-stalling traps, bad habits, and false assumptions that lead to dead ends.

Genres: Writing, Music, How To, Musicals

216 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2005

Reviews

[Mackenzie Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in 2005, this “survival guide” is not the best reference for industry standards. I enjoyed two out of this book’s five sections. The first being Section Two: The Basic Components in which Spencer discusses the building blocks of a musical libretto (book) and elements of a musical’s lyrics and score to consider. His thoughts on libretti are easy to follow and neatly organized; music and lyrics, a bit more scattered. The second section I enjoyed was Section Five: Random Thoughts, Coda, and Appendices. If you get beyond the Afterword of Random Thoughts which I find a little icky (except the Homework subsection), you’ll find an encouraging Coda and two examples of Spencer’s own critiques. Since Spencer has just given you his belief system about what makes a good musical, these deconstructions are really interesting to read. You read them with an understanding of his lens. I enjoyed that. Finally, Spencer leaves his readers with some resources on grants, development opportunities, and further reading, which I’m certain have expanded in the 18 years since this book’s publication. Overall, I took this book’s advice with a grain of salt, but I still found parts of it to be useful and thought provoking.

[Bill Stutzman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably a very useful book to have read and to save as an excellent reference manual for the craft. I'm too new to some of the covered elements to fully appreciate it yet, but I can imagine returning to Spencer's work as my time in the craft passes. Some specifics are a bit outdated, both in terms of technology and developments in the genre (think cassette tapes and CDs, Pre-Hamilton), but the key principles are still good.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was excellent. I just wish it were updated, as a surprising amount of the book is a product of its time (2005, not that long ago, but the extended section talking about cassette demos vs. CD demos felt pretty goofy). Not many of my friends would have use for this book, but for people who stumble upon it—as I did, in the Drama Book Shop, or elsewhere—it feels like a great trove of secrets.

[Pee Smitt]

good book for drama student

[Col]

Read for school

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The bitter truth about writing in any form, especially an interactive one like musical theater, is that there is no book that can teach you how to do it. You learn by doing, and by hands-on experience, much more than you learn from any primer, class or list of techniques. That said, Spencer's book is immensely useful as a reference tool and learning guide, if only for the experience and advice of a seasoned practitioner. Highly recommended to those who want to write- with the caveat that they actually DO go out and write as well.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful, especially as I don't think there's anything else out there that sets out to do the same. That said... my only complaint is that the tone of his writing is rather negative and bitter. He repeatedly criticizes Sondheim's Company (one of my favorite musicals) as being outdated. Come on. But it's a minor complaint, because otherwise this is a very helpful book.

[Jonathon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent advice about the nuts and bolts of being a musical theatre writer, especially on collaborations and the process of working. Some of the advice on recordings and demos was a bit out of date (a good part of a chapter was devoted to cassette tapes), but the book as a whole is definitely worth reading.