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Broadway Babies Say Goodnight: Musicals Then and Now
The Broadway musical was never simply a jazzed-up form of Viennese or English operetta, Mark Steyn argues in this book; it always set its own terms and conditions. At some time during the 1970s or '80s, though, the Broadway musical hit the buffers, which coincided with the arrival of the "British Broadway musical". With "Miss Saigon", "Aspects of Love" and "The Phantom of the Opera", the British musical in the West End is in rude health, attracting serious directing and acting talent, and serious money. Steyn asks the question: "Whither the musical?". Are the current successes in the great tradition of musical theatre established by Cole Porter, Rogers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, or is there too much emphasis on "production value", spectacular effects for effect's sake, and never mind the story-line? Is the musical still a valid form, or has it become fatally self-conscious?
350 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1998
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92 people want to read
About the author
Mark Steyn
220 books218 followersMark Steyn is a Canadian author and cultural commentator. He has written numerous books, including the New York Times bestsellers America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It. Steyn has been published by magazines and newspapers around the world, and is a regular guest host of the nationally syndicated Rush Limbaugh Show. He also guest hosts Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News, on which he regularly appears as a guest.
Steyn lives and works mainly in Woodsville, New Hampshire. He is married, and has three children.
Steyn lives and works mainly in Woodsville, New Hampshire. He is married, and has three children.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 25, 2016
This is a very entertaining, compelling, frustrating read, marred by its author's noxious political opinions. Steyn is extremely knowledgeable about musical theater, and he's at his best when he delves deep into the nitty-gritty of the shows: his in-depth analyses of assorted examples of music and lyrics and staging and how they work together (or don't) are the best bits of the book by far.
Unfortunately, his understanding of race has all the sophistication of a (white) four-year-old's, which is kind of a problem when you're writing the history of, y'know, anything in America. It's not that he can't look at race with nuance -- his chapter on Jewishness in musical theater is, on the whole, surprisingly astute -- but he absolutely refuses to lift the blinkers of whiteness. There's a rich, compelling story to be told about the ongoing struggle for structural recognition of black contributions to American theater (a struggle that has by no means ended with the 2016 Tony Awards), but you won't find that story here. The best you'll find is a couple throwaway lines about white people stealing black culture and an insistence that the n-word shouldn't be bowdlerized if it was originally intended to provoke discomfort (Mark Steyn apparently believes that the n-word will have the exact same impact on a contemporary audience as on a 1920s audience); the worst you'll find includes some whining that a (completely hypothetical) Tony Awards ceremony might appeal to blacks, gays, Jewish feminists, and Sondheim fans but "what about the rest of us?" Apparently blacks, gays, Jewish feminists, and Sondheim fans are expected to relate to material by and about "the rest of us" (presumably conservative straight white men), but anything so gauche as the actual inclusion of minorities can only alienate the most important people in the world, i.e. Mark Steyn and others just like him. (And in the very next chapter he has the gall to include a dig at that beloved punching bag of the conservative imagination, victimhood culture, as if he hadn't just made himself out to be excluded by something that literally did not happen.)
Steyn apparently believes that only the closeted among gays can write good drama and that societal acceptance of homosexuality causes bad plays (by which logic, surely no heterosexual has ever written a good play). It's extremely weird for someone so in love with musical theater to have such a clear distaste for queerness; though he does his best to hide it, this distaste is most evident in the curiously compassionless chapter about the impact of AIDS on the Broadway community.
And, dear lord, that needless, excruciating excursus showcasing his contempt for rap just displays the profundity of his ignorance of the genre. To kvetch over half-rhymes in N.W.A. lyrics is to miss the point so entirely you suspect he does it on purpose: black rappers do not write rhymes with the precision of a Cole Porter lyric precisely because they are not written for the consumption and reproduction of a white establishment. Gangsta rap marries sonic invention with the poetry of white-derided modes of speaking. It's a genre that was not created for bourgeois fucks like Mark Steyn (and, cards on the table, myself), but, as we've seen, Mark Steyn cannot bear the idea of anything that was not created specifically for him.
I've spent a lot of time deriding Steyn's political opinions, and from what I can tell they've only gotten more heinous in the nearly 20 years since he wrote this book (in the name of Schadenfreude, do I ever want to hear his no doubt hilariously whiny and reactionary feelings about Hamilton!). They certainly diminished my enjoyment of the book quite considerably, and honestly if I had known anything about Mark Steyn before opening the book I might not have been able to enjoy any of it, but there's undeniably some good stuff in here, particularly in the musical and lyrical analysis. It's just a shame Steyn is apparently constitutionally incapable of turning that analytical acumen to anything more complicated than a musical. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go read some Broadway histories written by blacks, gays, Jewish feminists, and Sondheim fans.
Unfortunately, his understanding of race has all the sophistication of a (white) four-year-old's, which is kind of a problem when you're writing the history of, y'know, anything in America. It's not that he can't look at race with nuance -- his chapter on Jewishness in musical theater is, on the whole, surprisingly astute -- but he absolutely refuses to lift the blinkers of whiteness. There's a rich, compelling story to be told about the ongoing struggle for structural recognition of black contributions to American theater (a struggle that has by no means ended with the 2016 Tony Awards), but you won't find that story here. The best you'll find is a couple throwaway lines about white people stealing black culture and an insistence that the n-word shouldn't be bowdlerized if it was originally intended to provoke discomfort (Mark Steyn apparently believes that the n-word will have the exact same impact on a contemporary audience as on a 1920s audience); the worst you'll find includes some whining that a (completely hypothetical) Tony Awards ceremony might appeal to blacks, gays, Jewish feminists, and Sondheim fans but "what about the rest of us?" Apparently blacks, gays, Jewish feminists, and Sondheim fans are expected to relate to material by and about "the rest of us" (presumably conservative straight white men), but anything so gauche as the actual inclusion of minorities can only alienate the most important people in the world, i.e. Mark Steyn and others just like him. (And in the very next chapter he has the gall to include a dig at that beloved punching bag of the conservative imagination, victimhood culture, as if he hadn't just made himself out to be excluded by something that literally did not happen.)
Steyn apparently believes that only the closeted among gays can write good drama and that societal acceptance of homosexuality causes bad plays (by which logic, surely no heterosexual has ever written a good play). It's extremely weird for someone so in love with musical theater to have such a clear distaste for queerness; though he does his best to hide it, this distaste is most evident in the curiously compassionless chapter about the impact of AIDS on the Broadway community.
And, dear lord, that needless, excruciating excursus showcasing his contempt for rap just displays the profundity of his ignorance of the genre. To kvetch over half-rhymes in N.W.A. lyrics is to miss the point so entirely you suspect he does it on purpose: black rappers do not write rhymes with the precision of a Cole Porter lyric precisely because they are not written for the consumption and reproduction of a white establishment. Gangsta rap marries sonic invention with the poetry of white-derided modes of speaking. It's a genre that was not created for bourgeois fucks like Mark Steyn (and, cards on the table, myself), but, as we've seen, Mark Steyn cannot bear the idea of anything that was not created specifically for him.
I've spent a lot of time deriding Steyn's political opinions, and from what I can tell they've only gotten more heinous in the nearly 20 years since he wrote this book (in the name of Schadenfreude, do I ever want to hear his no doubt hilariously whiny and reactionary feelings about Hamilton!). They certainly diminished my enjoyment of the book quite considerably, and honestly if I had known anything about Mark Steyn before opening the book I might not have been able to enjoy any of it, but there's undeniably some good stuff in here, particularly in the musical and lyrical analysis. It's just a shame Steyn is apparently constitutionally incapable of turning that analytical acumen to anything more complicated than a musical. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go read some Broadway histories written by blacks, gays, Jewish feminists, and Sondheim fans.
February 9, 2011
Wow! I already knew Mark Steyn as a brilliantly witty writer, insightful and logically devastating in his political commentary. I had no idea that his erudition extended to the rather esoteric field of "American Musical Theatre, History of"...But he is the most expert voice I have read on this subject, capable of tracing the history, analyzing its strengths and weaknesses in plot, lyrics and music, and relating various periods of that history to the broader political and cultural climate of each American era. This is a fascinating book for the history student, for the theater student, for the armchair music-loving theater buff. It's also a delight for the lover of wordplay and humor writing...Steyn is hard to pigeon-hole! Steyn discourses on not only the big and well-known, but the obscure and forgotten. My only question is when has he found time to learn so much about such a huge subject?
January 23, 2013
I know it is so surprising that I read books on Broadway Musicals. This book is the best I have read. Not because it was the most informative, not because it waxes poetically about Gershwins and Sondheim. But because this book is really really funny. I don't think I have laughed out loud reading a book this much in a long while. The whole chapter (for want of a better word) on rock musicals is hilarious and so true.
May 27, 2013
There are few non-fiction writers on any subject whose prose is as witty, informed, and easy to read as Mark Steyn's. You have to have more than a passing interested in musical theater to truly appreciate (and understand) this book, but for the target audience this book is pure gold.
It is one of the few scholarly works I've read where I became more and more panicked as I noticed my bookmark creeping deeper and deeper into the pages. I did not want it to end.
September 8, 2008
Steyn is a polymath possessing extraordinary writing skills and a wonderful wit. The author weaves biographical sketches in a loose chronological essay on American and British musical theater and its broader cultural impact. The book was informative entertainment, so much so that I couldn't put it down.
October 13, 2008
hilarious.
November 14, 2023
Wow.
I’m a fan of musicals, in much the same way that I’m a fan of horror movies: I’m not a fan of the form at all. But when there’s a good one, I love it. I am, however, a fan of music, and much of the greatest American music comes from musicals. I already knew this, but I did not know the extent of it. Even Broadway flops sometimes provide hits for the American songbook.
I like a lot more albums than I do the actual musical, from Baker Street to Shock Treatment to Jesus Christ, Superstar.
Mark Steyn has accumulated an immense knowledge of Broadway and London musicals through decades of interviews and just hanging around with luminaries and unknowns from the beginning of the modern musical—and before—into the Sondheim/Webber era of big-budget spectaculars.
Since this was written before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he doesn’t make the comparison, but it is one of his contentions that, as entertaining as they are, the sheer size of them is part of the reason the world of musicals has shrunk to the point that it can’t sustain itself. If you want new musicals, you need new people. If you need new people, you need a plethora of musicals for them to come up in, not just a few blockbusters.
Another thing this book is too early for, sadly, was South Park and the way that Parker and Stone make fun of musicals. If their satire can be taken as evidence, they have some of the same complaints as he does about how the modern musical has detached itself (like much of modern art) from the mass of people who might be willing to see them.
In Steyn’s estimation, Kern and Hammerstein created the modern musical with Show Boat. After a return to more old-fashioned musicals, they did it again with Oklahoma!. The basic idea behind what makes a musical modern is that the book comes first, then the music, and only then the lyrics. The composer must know the story to make music that fits. And the lyricist must know both the story and the music to write lyrics that fit. Once you do that, you can ensure that your songs are extensions of the story, move it along, rather than being literal show-stoppers that have so little to do with the story at that point that they could be sung by any of the characters.
In many ways—and I certainly saw this at the last musical I went to, The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical—musicals today have devolved back to spectacles where the music is unrelated to what’s going on.
Kern and Hammerstein didn’t create the modern musical out of whole cloth. There were already transitional musicals with more naturalistic lyrics, such as from P.G. Wodehouse, “who blazed the trail of coherent, integrated, democratic theatre lyrics.”
And there was also George Abbott. If there's one Broadway biography I’d like to read, it would be George Abbott’s. He began in Broadway acting at the Hudson in 1913. By his thirties “the leading writer/director/producer of farce and melodrama”. He worked with Rodgers and Hart, and his influence is found in famous names all the way through the era and up at least to Sondheim.
He was still working—on hits—not just into his nineties but past a hundred into the nineties.
This book is filled with funny stories, wonderful stories, heartbreaking stories, about the people who made up the twentieth-century musical phenomenon. Along the way, Steyn also outlines the arc of the musical’s growth and decline as a popular and ubiquitous art form.
I’m a fan of musicals, in much the same way that I’m a fan of horror movies: I’m not a fan of the form at all. But when there’s a good one, I love it. I am, however, a fan of music, and much of the greatest American music comes from musicals. I already knew this, but I did not know the extent of it. Even Broadway flops sometimes provide hits for the American songbook.
I like a lot more albums than I do the actual musical, from Baker Street to Shock Treatment to Jesus Christ, Superstar.
Mark Steyn has accumulated an immense knowledge of Broadway and London musicals through decades of interviews and just hanging around with luminaries and unknowns from the beginning of the modern musical—and before—into the Sondheim/Webber era of big-budget spectaculars.
Since this was written before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he doesn’t make the comparison, but it is one of his contentions that, as entertaining as they are, the sheer size of them is part of the reason the world of musicals has shrunk to the point that it can’t sustain itself. If you want new musicals, you need new people. If you need new people, you need a plethora of musicals for them to come up in, not just a few blockbusters.
…it’s like a ventriloquist sticking his hand up a corpse.
Another thing this book is too early for, sadly, was South Park and the way that Parker and Stone make fun of musicals. If their satire can be taken as evidence, they have some of the same complaints as he does about how the modern musical has detached itself (like much of modern art) from the mass of people who might be willing to see them.
In Steyn’s estimation, Kern and Hammerstein created the modern musical with Show Boat. After a return to more old-fashioned musicals, they did it again with Oklahoma!. The basic idea behind what makes a musical modern is that the book comes first, then the music, and only then the lyrics. The composer must know the story to make music that fits. And the lyricist must know both the story and the music to write lyrics that fit. Once you do that, you can ensure that your songs are extensions of the story, move it along, rather than being literal show-stoppers that have so little to do with the story at that point that they could be sung by any of the characters.
British theatre is a director’s club and it’s easy to forget that sometimes the writer is inconveniently living.
In many ways—and I certainly saw this at the last musical I went to, The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical—musicals today have devolved back to spectacles where the music is unrelated to what’s going on.
Kern and Hammerstein didn’t create the modern musical out of whole cloth. There were already transitional musicals with more naturalistic lyrics, such as from P.G. Wodehouse, “who blazed the trail of coherent, integrated, democratic theatre lyrics.”
And there was also George Abbott. If there's one Broadway biography I’d like to read, it would be George Abbott’s. He began in Broadway acting at the Hudson in 1913. By his thirties “the leading writer/director/producer of farce and melodrama”. He worked with Rodgers and Hart, and his influence is found in famous names all the way through the era and up at least to Sondheim.
He was still working—on hits—not just into his nineties but past a hundred into the nineties.
Or to put it in non-theatrical terms: most Americans know where they were when President Kennedy was assassinated; he could remember where he was when President McKinley was assassinated back in 1901.
This book is filled with funny stories, wonderful stories, heartbreaking stories, about the people who made up the twentieth-century musical phenomenon. Along the way, Steyn also outlines the arc of the musical’s growth and decline as a popular and ubiquitous art form.
October 7, 2020
The first half of this book is enjoyable enough - a breezy history of evolution of the American musical, which for the author reaches its apogee at Gypsy. So far so good. But the last half! I sucked in my breath. Steyn hates hates everything that comes after Gypsy, from Hair to Rent (when the book was published), but his arguments are shockingly racist and homophobic. He goes out of his way to talk about how tired he is of hearing about AIDS and attacks the plays of Terence McNally and Tony Kushner, which aren't even musicals. He is that exasperating thing - a conservative author who thinks he's funny so he can get away with punching down.
September 26, 2024
The book was enjoyable with new insights to the Broadway process. Starting with the first days of Broadway thru the present. Some interjections of the London theater scene. From the earlier performances I think for the most part they had more substance and musicality. You could always come out of a show humming a melody that you heard. Not so much these days. Not always, but newer productions rely on scenery, extravagances, and gizmos to succeed. The last part of the book was very good about Mister Abbott (George). A true icon of the Broadway theater during his 107 year life. It has made me want to delve more into his life.
December 27, 2023
Sorry I slogged through this, as this book has no redeeming qualities. Author clearly thinks he is epitome of wit and verve, when in reality he’s just a sad, snarky wannabe theatre critic who states that Phantom of the Opera is the only musical ALW based on a book. 🙄 I should’ve stopped right there, because why would you trust the opinions of someone who makes such an idiotic mistake? If I could give half a star, I would.
December 31, 2022
Encyclopaedic knowledge and astute analysis of both show and business. A bit inconsistent but not to the point of losing its main thread. Loved strong opinions strongly supported. It’d be a great study text for the current generation of ‘music theatre’ students.
September 10, 2019
There are a lot of claims that I disagree with in this book, but you can't quote Forbidden Broadway twice and get fewer than 4 stars from me!
January 14, 2012
Unique, witty history of the American musical. The author arranges the chapters to address different aspects of the show, such as "music, lyrics, cast, etc." and discusses musicals from different periods in each chapter. This convention works better than a straight chronological history, as it helps the reader to understand what makes certain shows great. As a long-time music lover (particularly musical theater), it was really interesting to hear someone explain the elements of a show and how they work (or don't). He also does a good job of explaining the changes in the industry over the years, and the decline of the genre in the past few decades.
January 6, 2016
I didn't really enjoy this. I wanted a history of musical theatre, not a series of op-eds focusing on one or two shows (did he adapt them from reviews he'd written in other publications? The structure of the book felt really piecemeal to me). The historical information was good, and he clearly knows a lot about musicals, but Steyn's opinions were intrusive, which would have been fine if he hadn't been so dickish and condescending about expressing them, especially in the chapters on AIDS and rock and pop music.
July 7, 2008
Occasionally pedantic, but a lot of fun.
June 22, 2011
Lots of inside Baseball, not an easy read for someone even moderately familiar with Broadway musicals, as I am. But it clued me into a few I hadn't seen that I want to check out
July 17, 2012
Very good, entertaining, provocative and idiosyncratic look at the Broadway musical.
October 23, 2013
A fantastic commentary of musical theater.
April 15, 2017
I found a couple parts of this book interesting, but mostly the author annoyed me. He seemed to dislike some things about theatre just because one is supposed to (Andrew Llyod Webber, etc.) and jumped back and forth on his opinions. If you REALLY love theatre, you might find parts interesting, but don't expect to enjoy most of the book.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews