Making It Big: The Diary of a Broadway Musical

by Barbara Isenberg

Long-time theatre writer and Los Angeles Times correspondent Barbara Isenberg received rare access to every aspect of the creative process and the financial planning that went into Big...The Musical . “Marvelous. Barbara Isenberg's precise and perceptive account of Big from its birth pangs to its final delivery is a gripping tale of blood, sweat and toys.” –Larry Gelbart

238 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1996

About the author

BARBARA ISENBERG,is an award winning journalist and author who has been writing about theater, art, music and arts personalities for over three decades. She is the author of the Los Angeles Times best-sellers Tradition! The Highly Improbable, Ultimately Triumphant Broadway-to-Hollywood Story of "Fiddler on the Roof," The World's Most Beloved Musical, and "Conversations with Frank Gehry," as well as "Making It Big: The Diary of a Broadway Musical," and "State of the Arts: California Artists Talk About Their Work ." Her writing has appeared in the LA Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time, Esquire, The Huffington Post, and London's Sunday Times. She received a Distinguished Artist Award from the Los Angeles Music Center and has been a Visiting Scholar at the Getty Research Institute. She lives in Los Angeles.

Her newest book, Tradition!: The Highly Improbable, Ultimately Triumphant Broadway-to-Hollywood Story of Fiddler on the Roof, The World's Most Beloved Musical, is now available in paperback as well as hardback. It was first published by St. Martin's Press to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the iconic musical's Broadway debut, and is also available as an audio book from LA Theatre Works and online.

Reviews

[Lyndsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has been in my reading list since at least 2020, so I'm glad I finally got to it! It was interesting reading about "Big" from the moment of its inception to its closure. As someone who works in the industry, I found it accurately captured the way new works happen and the blood, sweat, and tears that go into trying to make it a success. Sometimes, the odds are against you. Some things just don't work out, no matter how hard you try. Broadway is always a gamble. However, looking at it through the lens of modern Broadway, which is filled with movie-musicals, I can see why Big faltered. It's hard enough to capture lightning in a bottle once, let alone twice. Overall, Big's trajectory seemed a very normal path for a show to take, and I don't see what made this particular production noteworthy and deserving of a whole book. I will temper this by saying that the book was written nearly 30 years ago, so its intrigue may have been more obvious at publication than it is today.

[Daniel Krolik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bitchy and gossipy, but mostly a heartbreaking story of a show that almost but not quite met its potential, and got thwarted at the last minute by some shady Tony nominating practices and some bad timing. Every step of the process is intensely documented, and none of the creatives hold back when talking to the author.

[Joesmithwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting to know all the things that can go wrong- even when putting up a FUN show!

[Alan Hoffman]

Good book about trying to put a show together that's kind of chaotic.



They keep changing the songs and script because it's not working - the movie seems like good source material, but is actually tough to adapt. And other things come out that year - Bring in da Noise, Rent - that just seem more original.



I know somebody who did the national tour. She said there were a lot of changes.

[David Robeano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and sad, especially knowing the history of the show. I wish she would right a sequel documenting the changes in the piece after it's closing.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely interesting behind-the-scenes look at a Broadway musical.