Broadway musicals

by Martin Gottfried

A front row seat to fabulous Broadway musicals.

Genres: Theatre, Nonfiction, Reference

353 pages, Hardcover

First published April 3, 1980

About the author

Martin Gottfried,was a New York drama critic for over forty years and the author of five biographies and two books of theater criticism.

Gottfried graduated from Columbia College in New York City in 1959,and attended Columbia Law School for three semesters, next spending one year with U.S. Army Military Intelligence.Gottfried began his writing career as the classical music critic for The Village Voice, doubling as an off-Broadway reviewer for Women's Wear Daily, a position that made him the youngest member of the New York Drama Critics Circle in the organization's history.

Winner of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism and recipient of two Rockefeller Foundation Fellowships, Martin Gottfried was the chief dramatic critic for the New York Post and Saturday Review. He is the author of A Theater Divided, Jed Harris: The Curse of Genius, All His Jazz: The Life and Death of Bob Fosse, Balancing Act: The Authorized Biography of Angela Lansbury and Nobody’s Fool: The Lives of Danny Kaye.

Reviews

[Nicki Markus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Broadway Musicals is a difficult book to review. On the one hand, it is detailed and informative, with sections concentrating first on different aspects of musical theatre production and then on some key figures in the industry. However, this is an old work, so it only covers up to the 1970s, and some of the author's views come across these days as narrow minded. He makes many sweeping statements, especially on more 'modern' musicals with which I wholeheartedly disagree. On the plus side, though, the work contains many images, and it is worth checking out for that alone, even if you ignore the text. As such, I am giving it 3 stars.

[Sally N. Inglis]

Tanner gave this book to Mom & Dad.