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What Would Barbra Do?: How Musicals Changed My Life
Emma Brockes didn't always love musicals. In fact, she hated them. One of her earliest (and most painful) memories is of her mother singing "The Hills Are Alive" while young Emma crossed the street to go to her babysitting gig. According to her mother, the music would keep muggers at bay. According to Emma, it warded off friends, a social life, and any chance of being normal. As she grew older, however, these same songs continued to resonate in her head, first like a broken record and then as a fond reminder of her mother's love. Some people would slice off their arm with a plastic knife before they'd sit through Fiddler on the Roof or The Sound of Music . But musicals are everywhere, and it's about time someone asked why. From An American in Paris to Oklahoma! , Brockes explores the history, art, and politics of musicals, and how they have become an indelible part of our popular culture. Smartly written and incredibly witty, this is a book for people who understand that there are few situations in which the question "What would Barbra do?" doesn't have relevance, in a world much better lived to a soundtrack of show tunes. At the heart of What Would Barbra Do? is a touching story about a daughter, a mother, and how musicals kept them together. Part memoir, part musical history tour, it will keep you laughing and singing all at once.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2007
7 people are currently reading
137 people want to read
About the author
Emma Brockes
13 books16 followersEmma Brockes (born 1975) is a British author and a contributor to The Guardian and The New York Times. She lives in New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
October 6, 2008
this book was written for me by a fellow lover of musicals. i read it in less then 24 hours and loved every minute.
July 25, 2013
After reading this rambling mess of a book, I have just one question: does Emma Brockes like musicals at all?
February 2, 2012
I tend to haunt my local library in sections. For months I'll hang out in the young adult fiction section, then I'll move over to science fiction, or dally in their women's special collection.
Of late, I've been scouring the non-fiction arts section. Primarily this is because after two years writing a weekly performing arts column for our daily newspaper, I still feel like I have a lot to learn, especially about dance and opera. Most of it has to be learned from the artists and by experiencing performances, but books can help flatten out the learning curve a bit.
So it was while making one of my searches that I came across Emma Brockes' What Would Barbra Do? How Musicals Changed My Life. It had a sassy cover and book jacket description, so I figured I'd check it out and give it a read.
The result was one of the most laugh-out-loud, entertaining reads I'd had for months.
Emma Brockes has a sassy style laced with a sometimes-cynical humor. This is no dry tour of musical history. Rather, she takes a very personal approach, creating a personal memoir of musicals and her experience with them. The book is her tribute to musicals, though she just as often mocks them as not. Even the title character --Barbra Streisand--isn't free from gentle poking, though she is unabashedly a fan of Ms. Streisand.
Given the personal nature of the book, there are some biases that come out very quickly. She is a British writer who lives in England and the book is filled with Briticisms and references to British pop culture that went right over my head. When she refers to musicals, she is definitely referring to anything pre-1970, though she does devote a chapter to why she doesn't like the more contemporary offerings. She also strongly prefers movies to stage versions. Most of her discussions center on the movie versions and the specific performers taking on the roles.
Young Biddies
Brockes starts out acknowledging that her love affair with musicals is one that puts her outside of hip culture. She categorizes herself and other women like her as "young biddies" and provides the list of criteria and ways to recognize if you are, like her, a young biddie.
For her, much of her love affairs with musicals began as a young girl with Mary Poppins. She would visit her friend Gina's house where there were only two videos to choose from: Mary Poppins and a snowman video. The former became a daily habit until she and her friend could quote it from memory and would play quoting games with each other.
It was ruined for her one day when Gina's older sister Chloe and her friend came in and announced that Madonna and Sean Penn were getting a divorce.
"Something had been spoiled. At some point before our 11th birthdays, it started to feel childish and backward and embarrassingly far removed from whatever Madonna and Sean Penn, whoever they might be, were doing."
Musical Arguments
It didn't however, stop her from loving musicals or into getting into heated discussions about them. Two of the funniest moments in the book where her recounts of arguments she got into with other men. In one instance, she gets into a heated argument about Titanic and Cats with her male traveling companion. He insisted the former was art, she said it was a travesty that offended those who died. She further tried to insist that anything with Billy Zane in it couldn't be art--8nor was she swayed by his question whether Hamlet would be art if Billy Zane acted in it. Cats happened to drive the dagger into the evening as that was what they then went to see.
The second narrative was the introduction to her chapter on Barbra Streisand, where she writes:
"It is one of the timeless, unvarying rules of the universe, that a man who can talk for twenty minutes at the pub about his enthusiasm for Barbra Streisand's 1973 classic The Way We Were is not a man intent, later that evening, on making advances. You're on pretty safe ground, I'd say, in such a context, to express your enthusiasm for that man without it being misconstrued by another man, his friend, who might be standing next to him and with whom you might or might not be on a sort of date."
Men and Musicals
In the middle of the book, she has two chapters dealing with men. One is why men hate musicals--and she lists some of the ludicrous conceits that many musicals are based upon--and the other is on how to make men love musicals. For the latter, she suggests a diet of films, beginning with one that isn't even a musical: It's a Wonderful Life. From there, she suggests such men-friendly musicals as Cabaret, Guys and Dolls, An American in Paris, West Side Story, Paint Your Wagon, and Brigadoon.
What She Hates
Lovers of the modern musical will quickly diverge with Brockes, even as they're likely to continue to delight in her writing style and the passion with which she makes her arguments. She pretty much hates anything by Andrew Lloyd Weber. She devotes only three pages out of 270 to Stephen Sondheim. It's a short chapter--she calls it an interlude--in which she basically says she's still undecided. She didn't like him at first, but she's starting to come around to him.
She claims there are three categories of bad musicals--which is where she puts most modern musicals: Bad/bad--those that are commercial failures and are just plain bad; bad/good--shows that she thinks are terrible but were commercially successful; and good/bad--shows that are so awful they somehow become good.
Her example of good/bad is Neil Diamond's The Jazz Singer while her examples of bad/good include just about anything by Webber, including Phantom of the Opera and Les Mis.
She is often at her best when she is ranting about how bad a particular musical is. It is easy to see she does this as often in real life as she does in print. She even reveals a scene where she rants to her father for three pages--while they leave the theater and get through an entire meal. He's sipping his after-dinner tea before he's allowed to give his three-word response to the show.
Her chapter on the worst musical of all time is also a worthy read as she dissects and mocks what she considers the world's worst musical.
Barbra
It isn't until you get to the middle of the book that she tells you why she named the title what she did and the role that Barbra Streisand and her work has been significant to the author. She does assume that the reader has some knowledge of Babs, and doesn't bother to give a biography. Instead, she goes right to the topics that she finds interesting. One of those was Yentl and the history behind its production.
Brockes and her friend Adi frequently watch Yentl together and take a certain amount of glee out of the fact that all the songs in it are sung by Barbara, despite the male lead being played by the Broadway virtuoso Mandy Patinkin.
"'Do you think when Patinkin signed up he thought he was going to get to sing?' asks Adi every time we watch it.
'I think the word 'musical' probably raised his hopes, yes.'"
Other chapters include a look at the Aquamusicals, the Sound of Music, and two personal stories about her mother.
The book is a delightful romp that is easily the best book on musicals I've ever read. While the journey Brockes takes us on is a personal one, it is imbued with such passion and humor, that even her biases serve to make the book a better read.
Of late, I've been scouring the non-fiction arts section. Primarily this is because after two years writing a weekly performing arts column for our daily newspaper, I still feel like I have a lot to learn, especially about dance and opera. Most of it has to be learned from the artists and by experiencing performances, but books can help flatten out the learning curve a bit.
So it was while making one of my searches that I came across Emma Brockes' What Would Barbra Do? How Musicals Changed My Life. It had a sassy cover and book jacket description, so I figured I'd check it out and give it a read.
The result was one of the most laugh-out-loud, entertaining reads I'd had for months.
Emma Brockes has a sassy style laced with a sometimes-cynical humor. This is no dry tour of musical history. Rather, she takes a very personal approach, creating a personal memoir of musicals and her experience with them. The book is her tribute to musicals, though she just as often mocks them as not. Even the title character --Barbra Streisand--isn't free from gentle poking, though she is unabashedly a fan of Ms. Streisand.
Given the personal nature of the book, there are some biases that come out very quickly. She is a British writer who lives in England and the book is filled with Briticisms and references to British pop culture that went right over my head. When she refers to musicals, she is definitely referring to anything pre-1970, though she does devote a chapter to why she doesn't like the more contemporary offerings. She also strongly prefers movies to stage versions. Most of her discussions center on the movie versions and the specific performers taking on the roles.
Young Biddies
Brockes starts out acknowledging that her love affair with musicals is one that puts her outside of hip culture. She categorizes herself and other women like her as "young biddies" and provides the list of criteria and ways to recognize if you are, like her, a young biddie.
For her, much of her love affairs with musicals began as a young girl with Mary Poppins. She would visit her friend Gina's house where there were only two videos to choose from: Mary Poppins and a snowman video. The former became a daily habit until she and her friend could quote it from memory and would play quoting games with each other.
It was ruined for her one day when Gina's older sister Chloe and her friend came in and announced that Madonna and Sean Penn were getting a divorce.
"Something had been spoiled. At some point before our 11th birthdays, it started to feel childish and backward and embarrassingly far removed from whatever Madonna and Sean Penn, whoever they might be, were doing."
Musical Arguments
It didn't however, stop her from loving musicals or into getting into heated discussions about them. Two of the funniest moments in the book where her recounts of arguments she got into with other men. In one instance, she gets into a heated argument about Titanic and Cats with her male traveling companion. He insisted the former was art, she said it was a travesty that offended those who died. She further tried to insist that anything with Billy Zane in it couldn't be art--8nor was she swayed by his question whether Hamlet would be art if Billy Zane acted in it. Cats happened to drive the dagger into the evening as that was what they then went to see.
The second narrative was the introduction to her chapter on Barbra Streisand, where she writes:
"It is one of the timeless, unvarying rules of the universe, that a man who can talk for twenty minutes at the pub about his enthusiasm for Barbra Streisand's 1973 classic The Way We Were is not a man intent, later that evening, on making advances. You're on pretty safe ground, I'd say, in such a context, to express your enthusiasm for that man without it being misconstrued by another man, his friend, who might be standing next to him and with whom you might or might not be on a sort of date."
Men and Musicals
In the middle of the book, she has two chapters dealing with men. One is why men hate musicals--and she lists some of the ludicrous conceits that many musicals are based upon--and the other is on how to make men love musicals. For the latter, she suggests a diet of films, beginning with one that isn't even a musical: It's a Wonderful Life. From there, she suggests such men-friendly musicals as Cabaret, Guys and Dolls, An American in Paris, West Side Story, Paint Your Wagon, and Brigadoon.
What She Hates
Lovers of the modern musical will quickly diverge with Brockes, even as they're likely to continue to delight in her writing style and the passion with which she makes her arguments. She pretty much hates anything by Andrew Lloyd Weber. She devotes only three pages out of 270 to Stephen Sondheim. It's a short chapter--she calls it an interlude--in which she basically says she's still undecided. She didn't like him at first, but she's starting to come around to him.
She claims there are three categories of bad musicals--which is where she puts most modern musicals: Bad/bad--those that are commercial failures and are just plain bad; bad/good--shows that she thinks are terrible but were commercially successful; and good/bad--shows that are so awful they somehow become good.
Her example of good/bad is Neil Diamond's The Jazz Singer while her examples of bad/good include just about anything by Webber, including Phantom of the Opera and Les Mis.
She is often at her best when she is ranting about how bad a particular musical is. It is easy to see she does this as often in real life as she does in print. She even reveals a scene where she rants to her father for three pages--while they leave the theater and get through an entire meal. He's sipping his after-dinner tea before he's allowed to give his three-word response to the show.
Her chapter on the worst musical of all time is also a worthy read as she dissects and mocks what she considers the world's worst musical.
Barbra
It isn't until you get to the middle of the book that she tells you why she named the title what she did and the role that Barbra Streisand and her work has been significant to the author. She does assume that the reader has some knowledge of Babs, and doesn't bother to give a biography. Instead, she goes right to the topics that she finds interesting. One of those was Yentl and the history behind its production.
Brockes and her friend Adi frequently watch Yentl together and take a certain amount of glee out of the fact that all the songs in it are sung by Barbara, despite the male lead being played by the Broadway virtuoso Mandy Patinkin.
"'Do you think when Patinkin signed up he thought he was going to get to sing?' asks Adi every time we watch it.
'I think the word 'musical' probably raised his hopes, yes.'"
Other chapters include a look at the Aquamusicals, the Sound of Music, and two personal stories about her mother.
The book is a delightful romp that is easily the best book on musicals I've ever read. While the journey Brockes takes us on is a personal one, it is imbued with such passion and humor, that even her biases serve to make the book a better read.
August 5, 2024
The opening of this book did not grab my attention and I nearly stopped reading. But I am glad I didn't as the book is full of tales from the golden age of musical theatre and the singers and composers. It isn't a self help book about how to live like Barbra, more of a hymn to musicals. I left this book with a list of musicals to listen to or rewatch.
April 2, 2016
I'm rather touchy on the subject of musicals. I get rather upset when people start to pick them to bits - because I love them. Music has always been a rather emotional subject for me - it has the wonderful ability to lift you when you really need it.
From a young age I was surrounded by it and also by musicals. My grandparents had the album of the soundtrack to Fiddler on the Roof (still a sentimental favourite of mine) - their record collection being mainly Max Bygraves records. Two of my older sisters had the albums of shows like Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Rocky Horror, Tell Me on a Sunday, War of the Worlds, The Jazz Singer, Xanadu, Godspell. So I never really stood a chance - musicals were part of me.
I'm the girl who took her high school best friends to a showing of West Side Story at the local independent cinema for her birthday treat. Or spent her school holidays watching Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly movies. In fact I have fond memories of watching a production of Into The Woods one Christmas on BBC 2 which starred Bernadette Peters many years ago. Of being mesmerised by Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner dancing in the The King and I.
Now at the age of 40 I quite happily take myself off to London for the day for a matinee showing - or a short break that will cram in as many shows as will fit.
I bought this book several years ago, because I thought it was written by a kindred spirit - now I've read it I'm bemused and a little bit angry - as all the author seems to do is go through the things she hates about musicals. She doesn't like Sondheim, Lloyd Webber - in fact anything after 1971 and before 1945 is not worth her time (except for Yentl which she seems to like because Barbra Streisand is awesome). She virtually completely ignores Judy Garland (except for a brief passage about A Star is Born when talking about torch songs). Julie Andrews can do no wrong, so a lot is written about The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins (and the travesty that she didn't get to play Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady - heard that one a hundred times).
She took the joy out of them and just ridiculed them.
Then she decided that Xanadu was the worst musical ever made........
And that new musicals are terrible (she really doesn't like Billy Elliot - which I can't comment on because I haven't seen it). Lord only knows what she thinks about the current trend for "Jukebox" musicals - or The Book of Mormon (which I adore).
But Xanadu? While I agree that large parts of the plot aren't great I have to say that I've always enjoyed the soundtrack (that might have to do with one of my sisters being an ELO fan), songs like I'm Alive, You Have to Believe We Are Magic, Suddenly and of course the title track just make me smile - because they fill you with hope, they make you hope for more.
She calls the film version of Phantom of the Opera awful - again, while I agree some of the casting wasn't ideal, I happened to like Gerard Butler as the Phantom (a character that I felt really sorry for when I first saw the show and still do). I thought he did a great job.
Everyone has their own opinion and they're entitled to it - but I don't have to like it.
In fact the only thing I did agree with the author on was about Cats - I have no ruddy clue what the hell that show was about either - but Memory is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard (say what you like about Lloyd Webber, but he can write bloody good tunes).
Musicals have the ability to move you - you take from them what you want. I cried all the way through Les Mis when I first saw it. When I went to see Beautiful there were claps and cheers when Carole told Gerry she was leaving him - I left that show with such a smile on my face and that song running continuously through my head.
I could have stopped reading this book - but I was curious as to whether it would get better - it didn't.
So, in the spirit of The Book of Mormon - I'll put this book in a box and CRUSH IT!!!!
From a young age I was surrounded by it and also by musicals. My grandparents had the album of the soundtrack to Fiddler on the Roof (still a sentimental favourite of mine) - their record collection being mainly Max Bygraves records. Two of my older sisters had the albums of shows like Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Rocky Horror, Tell Me on a Sunday, War of the Worlds, The Jazz Singer, Xanadu, Godspell. So I never really stood a chance - musicals were part of me.
I'm the girl who took her high school best friends to a showing of West Side Story at the local independent cinema for her birthday treat. Or spent her school holidays watching Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly movies. In fact I have fond memories of watching a production of Into The Woods one Christmas on BBC 2 which starred Bernadette Peters many years ago. Of being mesmerised by Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner dancing in the The King and I.
Now at the age of 40 I quite happily take myself off to London for the day for a matinee showing - or a short break that will cram in as many shows as will fit.
I bought this book several years ago, because I thought it was written by a kindred spirit - now I've read it I'm bemused and a little bit angry - as all the author seems to do is go through the things she hates about musicals. She doesn't like Sondheim, Lloyd Webber - in fact anything after 1971 and before 1945 is not worth her time (except for Yentl which she seems to like because Barbra Streisand is awesome). She virtually completely ignores Judy Garland (except for a brief passage about A Star is Born when talking about torch songs). Julie Andrews can do no wrong, so a lot is written about The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins (and the travesty that she didn't get to play Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady - heard that one a hundred times).
She took the joy out of them and just ridiculed them.
Then she decided that Xanadu was the worst musical ever made........
And that new musicals are terrible (she really doesn't like Billy Elliot - which I can't comment on because I haven't seen it). Lord only knows what she thinks about the current trend for "Jukebox" musicals - or The Book of Mormon (which I adore).
But Xanadu? While I agree that large parts of the plot aren't great I have to say that I've always enjoyed the soundtrack (that might have to do with one of my sisters being an ELO fan), songs like I'm Alive, You Have to Believe We Are Magic, Suddenly and of course the title track just make me smile - because they fill you with hope, they make you hope for more.
She calls the film version of Phantom of the Opera awful - again, while I agree some of the casting wasn't ideal, I happened to like Gerard Butler as the Phantom (a character that I felt really sorry for when I first saw the show and still do). I thought he did a great job.
Everyone has their own opinion and they're entitled to it - but I don't have to like it.
In fact the only thing I did agree with the author on was about Cats - I have no ruddy clue what the hell that show was about either - but Memory is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard (say what you like about Lloyd Webber, but he can write bloody good tunes).
Musicals have the ability to move you - you take from them what you want. I cried all the way through Les Mis when I first saw it. When I went to see Beautiful there were claps and cheers when Carole told Gerry she was leaving him - I left that show with such a smile on my face and that song running continuously through my head.
I could have stopped reading this book - but I was curious as to whether it would get better - it didn't.
So, in the spirit of The Book of Mormon - I'll put this book in a box and CRUSH IT!!!!
October 22, 2015
This book is my vindication. Just so great. It took me longer than the average time to read because I kept having to put the book down and break into song and dance throughout. And she's so insightful about musicals, like here: "the themes of the backstage musical -- ambition, self-promotion, the tension between bravado and vulnerability -- are packaged as a comment on the struggle all good Americans should be going through to better themselves." So well-put! Her discussion of Yentl ("It was so perversely unfashionable that among existing Babs fans it became an instant classic") is out-of-the-park fantastic. I totally agreed with everything the author said -- except perhaps with her doubtfulness about Sondheim's genius -- e.g., I hate Cats too, along with most everything Andrew Lloyd Webber. I laughed out loud a lot, esp. at her plot summaries of wacky musicals. The ending, however, was really sad and unexpected after all the upbeatness. But you could skip the last chapter and avoid this sad episode. I also learned from this book that there is a booming black market in answering machine messages left by celebrities.
February 2, 2008
This quick read was a very opinionated view of musicals and Emma Brock's limited view of what makes one good. Though I also like (maybe even prefer) technicolor musicals, the author has completely written off any movie musical made before 1945 and after 1971 as irrelevant. She also dwelled upon the same 2 or 3 movies throughout the majority of the book. These things annoyed me. While it may be entertaining for fans of the artform, it is still little more than a series of synopsis' of a handful of films and one or two stage shows. I didn't take away much, but enjoyed rehashing what I pretty much already knew.
February 13, 2008
This was an entertaining book. I enjoyed getting the perspective of an ardent musical theater fan who is not of my generation (she's in her 20s, whereas I'm...not.) Also, because the author is English, her perspective on musical theater is a bit different from the American one. I thought she blurred the line a bit too much between movie musicals and those on the stage, and there was a bit too much emphasis on the blockbuster musical, but overall I was pleased. I especially liked her very funny analysis of truly terrible musicals.
January 24, 2009
I LOVE THIS BOOK! I want to meet Emma Brockes and be her friend. I want to join her for a Yentl and Lentil evening. Any fan of musicals should read this book. Anyone who cares about and is perplexed by a fan of musicals, read this book. I laughed and laughed aloud while reading it, waxed rhapsodic to my daughter while driving her to class (at 9 am on a Saturday morning before having any coffee or food)and am now happily luxuriating in a collage-like haze of scenes from all my favorite musicals. Rapture unexampled!
January 25, 2008
I wish I could have loved this book-- a manifesto for people who unabashedly adore musical theater. Unfortunately, it's more of an incoherent ramble through the author's opinions (likes: anything with Julie Andrews; hates: anything by Sondheim) than a real appreciation of the genre.
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July 31, 2011Highly disappointing and boring. Honestly, if you're going to write a book about the genre of musical theater watching a lot of movie musicals doesn't make you an expert! And don't use Bab's name in the title and not talk about Funny Girl! Seriously!
November 11, 2022
Since I was in junior high, over sixty years ago, I have been a student of American Musical Theater. I used to carry a book of musical theater history with me wherever I went! I won’t say I’m an expert, but I know much more than your average fan of musicals. So when I saw the blurb for Emma Brockes’s What Would Barbra Do?, I was intrigued, especially when I saw the sub-title: How Musicals Changed My Life. So I set about reading the book eagerly. What a terrible disappointment that was. Had I not wanted to see if Brockes redeemed herself by the end of the book, I would have thrown it up against a wall. First of all, I admit I was fooled by the term “musicals.” Brockes almost entirely meant film musicals. That, my friends, does not represent the American art form of musical theater, even if the film version is from a stage musical—a fact that Brockes rarely mentions, and certainly, doesn’t distinguish the film from the stage versions. In her eyes, as she reports, the film represents entirely what the original authors intended. We all know that films are often changed from their sources. Those sources? If books inspired the original stage versions, Brockes compares her films to those books. Books are almost always changed by the time they are filmed. It bothered me, too, that Brockes, who wants us to believe she loves musicals (and they changed her life) gets facts incorrect. Repeatedly, she refers to Mary Poppins as a 1963 film, but the film was released in 1964. She tells us Gene Kelly was supposed to play Billy Bigelow in the film Carousel, and yet it was Frank Sinatra who signed for the film and walked off, thus necessitating a quick hire of Gordon MacRae. And twice she refers to “scores” by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, completely negating the contributions of the composers who wrote the music for those skillful Bergman lyrics. About that love for musicals? Brockes declares it over and over and over. Then she proceeds to trash just about every film she supposedly loves. In her eyes, musicals are poorly written, full of plot holes, favor the men over the women (most of the films she discusses are from the 50s when men were always favored over women in every walk of life,) and the lyrics corny. How can she love something she degrades so much? As for the “changed my life” part, I never got the message. She was so busy wanting us to believe she loved these shows she hated, she apparently forgot to tell us why they changed her life, going on and on about how and why men don’t like musicals and why gay men do. Her remarks on gay men, I might add, are not very flattering, despite her telling us she has gay friends—sort of the argument so often quoted, “I like gays; I have gay friends,” while the person is gay-bashing in the next sentence. Finally, Brockes spends the last fourth of the book explaining the true story of the Trapp Family Singers and Maria Von Trapp, decrying how the film—not the stage musical, mind you—degraded Maria’s story. This came after a lengthy plot summary of a movie she called a musical—Lili—which was not one. And yes, she includes in her book, two other movies, The Way We Were and Gone With the Wind, speaking of them as if they were musicals as well. I got so tired of this woman’s musicals-bashing. And her calling Barbra Streisand Babs incessantly. I did look that up, and that is Streisand’s nickname, but come on, why use it a zillion times, when it is evident Emma Brockes does not know the superstar personally. If she had, she might have realized The Way We Were was not a musical and the Bergmans only wrote the lyrics to the title song. And she might understand that it truly doesn’t matter that Isaac Bashevis Singer did not like Streisand’s take on his short story Yentl. He sold it to her, and once sold, it became hers to do what she wanted with it. Emma Brockes, why? why? why?
September 30, 2018
I found myself seriously concerned at the end. I know, right? Seriously concerned after a book about the least serious things on the planet. And it wasn't about the fact that she despised Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was the sarcastic, self-despising, respect-less, profane* tone of voice that permeated the book.
While everyone has the right to any opinion, this book refused to allow that right to any of it's readers. Therefore Yentl was great because she said it was and Seven Brides For Seven Brothers was awful because she said it was. As much as taste was bragged about and flaunted there wasn't any strong reasons, in my opinion, to back up the taste.
This tone and way of thinking was a ghastly view of what society has become... sharply contrasted with what society was. And, if this is what society is becoming, give me the 30's, 40's, and 50's where most people at least would have been Doris Day shocked at such goings on.
It rambles, without an end goal. And I've seen so many memoirs who do have a goal that it was just frustrating at the end. And yes, I do realize that I sound like a member of the previous generation. So be it. If such disregard for human worth and for personal opinions is in, this generation can have it.
*profane meaning the inability to take or look at anything as sacred(to anyone else) and the two or so f-words that made it into every chapter.
While everyone has the right to any opinion, this book refused to allow that right to any of it's readers. Therefore Yentl was great because she said it was and Seven Brides For Seven Brothers was awful because she said it was. As much as taste was bragged about and flaunted there wasn't any strong reasons, in my opinion, to back up the taste.
This tone and way of thinking was a ghastly view of what society has become... sharply contrasted with what society was. And, if this is what society is becoming, give me the 30's, 40's, and 50's where most people at least would have been Doris Day shocked at such goings on.
It rambles, without an end goal. And I've seen so many memoirs who do have a goal that it was just frustrating at the end. And yes, I do realize that I sound like a member of the previous generation. So be it. If such disregard for human worth and for personal opinions is in, this generation can have it.
*profane meaning the inability to take or look at anything as sacred(to anyone else) and the two or so f-words that made it into every chapter.
May 30, 2018
As I mentioned elsewhere, at least half of my time with this book was hate-reading. Brockes has many opinions and seemingly no interest in anyone who disagrees with them. Which, I'm going to go out on a limb and say is a lot of people. This is very navel-gazing and tries very hard to be irreverent and funny but more often comes off as bitter and annoying. Which is sort of shame because when she drops the too-cool-for-this-dorky-school shtick, there are some really lovely, honest moments and good writing. Unfortunately, they are very few and far between.
July 29, 2019
I was so excited to read this book, but unfortunately, it just wasn't that great. Perhaps it was because the author and I both like musicals, but definitely have different tastes in theatre. What she considers great, I consider "eh". She was so opinionated and it made me wonder why her opinion was worth reading? And the real answer is, her book is really not worth reading. So don't mind me, I'll go back to my cast recordings and blast me some Andrew Lloyd Webber now, thank you very much.
May 18, 2017
Pretty much what it says, how musicals have affected the author's life. She is a journalist, and from its style it could have been a magazine article--personal stories interspersed with interviews of various oddball people connected to showbiz. I enjoyed it, made me laugh, although the line that made me laugh the most is probably not anything that anyone else might have found THAT funny........
January 2, 2021
I'm so bummed I didn't enjoy this book more than I did. I give it 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3. This book is good for a walk down musical memory lane or learning about ones you haven't seen yet, but I didn't connect the narrative with the title... maybe it was just me.
September 8, 2024
If you are interested in musical theatre, this is quite a fun and entertaining read. If you don't mind Emma Brockes' sometimes eccentric opinions, and that the book concentrates mainly on film rather than stage musical productions, it's an easy and enjoyable read, with a witty, anecdotal style.
September 8, 2017
An entertaining, lightweight look at musicals with lots of personal anecdotes but disappointingly lacking in much substance.
October 8, 2018
This is a light fun read for lovers of musicals. There are even obscure ones mentioned that make you want to check them out.
December 13, 2020
Crash course-cum-memoir which treats the Golden Age reverently and takes us up to the mid-2000s. Very good on Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music and 'men and musicals'.
April 26, 2021
I’ve watched few musicals so the subject matter wasn’t all that interesting, but Brockes’s writing is brilliant and hilarious.
October 18, 2021
Ok. But found it very confusing working it what it was supposed to be. A memoir? A guide to musicals? A critique of cultural snobbery? It was a little bit of all but not enough of any.
December 24, 2015
Ms. Brockes short memoir and homage to the musical, a quintessentially American art form, manages to be insouciant, irreverent, critical and deeply loving, no mean feat. The musical has had its ups and downs throughout the years. Ms. Brockes didn’t always care for musicals. However, she became a fan of them and this book shows how it wound its way through her life, how it made her friends and drove out troublesome lovers.
But anything that one person calls a passion can be labeled an abomination by another. There are people who hate musicals or least certain musicals (Sunset Boulevard anyone?) and they can’t necessarily explain why they dislike the form any more than others can tell why they adore the sappy sentimentality of The Sound of Music. Ms. Brockes breaks it down admirably. Without being preachy, pedantic or gushing—she’s not interested in winning converts, only in making explanations—she goes through the history of the musical, how it impacted the lives of those it touched and what exactly makes one musical great while another is a thudding failure. The role of the musical in its early days is radically different from the one it plays in the 21st century…it’s no longer just about kids putting on a show in a barn.
This is a charming little book, a swift and easy read, without being fluffy or silly. Whether you like or dislike musicals, if you’ve ever found yourself humming the title songs to Oklahoma or Cabaret, this book might just tell you why they matter.
But anything that one person calls a passion can be labeled an abomination by another. There are people who hate musicals or least certain musicals (Sunset Boulevard anyone?) and they can’t necessarily explain why they dislike the form any more than others can tell why they adore the sappy sentimentality of The Sound of Music. Ms. Brockes breaks it down admirably. Without being preachy, pedantic or gushing—she’s not interested in winning converts, only in making explanations—she goes through the history of the musical, how it impacted the lives of those it touched and what exactly makes one musical great while another is a thudding failure. The role of the musical in its early days is radically different from the one it plays in the 21st century…it’s no longer just about kids putting on a show in a barn.
This is a charming little book, a swift and easy read, without being fluffy or silly. Whether you like or dislike musicals, if you’ve ever found yourself humming the title songs to Oklahoma or Cabaret, this book might just tell you why they matter.
January 23, 2016
Emma Brockes, like myself, was raised by a mother who loved musicals. You know, the movies and stage shows that highlight performers who burst into song and choreographed dance numbers in the middle of deep conversations. I love them. Emma has a love/hate relationship with them - her passion for some makes her intricately critical of others. This book is her thoughts on dozens of different musicals, their performers and the genre itself.
On the one hand, I liked it because I like to read about musicals and as an author, she has a quirky and sometimes hilariously snarky voice. But the book really just is, mostly, her own personal thoughts about them. Why she adored Mary Poppins but mostly hated but sort of loved Yentl. Thoughts on Barbra Streisand just in general and a lot on the differences between musicals of different time periods. I was always pleased to pick it up, but one thing must be said: there is no real organization to the book. It is sort of like one of those idea webs you make before you write a paper. Jumbled thoughts all over the place and the ending actually confused me. I just decided not to let it bother me but all the jumping around made it not feel particularly cohesive and I still don't really know how musicals changed her life.
If you are a huge musicals fan, I would tell you to read it because if you are like me, just reading about them is like visiting an old friend. But otherwise, it will probably drive you crazy - but I bet the title itself told you that.
On the one hand, I liked it because I like to read about musicals and as an author, she has a quirky and sometimes hilariously snarky voice. But the book really just is, mostly, her own personal thoughts about them. Why she adored Mary Poppins but mostly hated but sort of loved Yentl. Thoughts on Barbra Streisand just in general and a lot on the differences between musicals of different time periods. I was always pleased to pick it up, but one thing must be said: there is no real organization to the book. It is sort of like one of those idea webs you make before you write a paper. Jumbled thoughts all over the place and the ending actually confused me. I just decided not to let it bother me but all the jumping around made it not feel particularly cohesive and I still don't really know how musicals changed her life.
If you are a huge musicals fan, I would tell you to read it because if you are like me, just reading about them is like visiting an old friend. But otherwise, it will probably drive you crazy - but I bet the title itself told you that.
January 13, 2013
As an ardent defender of the musicals faith myself, I felt I would love this book frankly regardless of it's content. It could have just been a list of musicals. Unfortunately, that's actually all it was & it turns out, it wasn't really enough. I didn't get the 'sharp wit' & 'laugh out loud-ness' that other readers seem to have gleaned. It was like being at a party with a friend who has loads of funny stories, but their delivery just, well, sucks a fair bit so everyone listening disperses off back to the buffet table.
There were some moments of humour (although I think this was insider humour as a fellow devotee of musicals) & some insights here before unknown but largely it felt like a description of all the musicals that the author had ever seen, with a random history of the real life Von Trapp family thrown in. Until...the last chapter. Here is where I despaired. Oh how tender & sweet & genuine this last chapter was. Emma Brockes, why wasn't the whole book structured around the relationship between you, musicals & your mother? I would have laughed & wept along with you & reaffirmed that musicals mean so much to so many for reasons that can be nothing or everything. I wish this was the book that the last chapter promised it would be.
There were some moments of humour (although I think this was insider humour as a fellow devotee of musicals) & some insights here before unknown but largely it felt like a description of all the musicals that the author had ever seen, with a random history of the real life Von Trapp family thrown in. Until...the last chapter. Here is where I despaired. Oh how tender & sweet & genuine this last chapter was. Emma Brockes, why wasn't the whole book structured around the relationship between you, musicals & your mother? I would have laughed & wept along with you & reaffirmed that musicals mean so much to so many for reasons that can be nothing or everything. I wish this was the book that the last chapter promised it would be.
July 10, 2012
I really liked this book up until the last two chapters. There are a few side rants that go on a little too long, but it has a lot of neat facts about musicals and is written in a flip, funny tone. Then there's a longish chapter about a Sound of Music tour of Salzburg that doesn't really go anywhere and the book ends with a chapter about the death of the author's mother, as though we should have known all along that was what the book was about. Truthfully, that chapter seemed tacked on, and I was frankly lost at first, not sure whether I missed the introduction of her mother's illness. The chapter on Lili makes me want to see that movie, and the chapter on the Streisand impersonator is very good, as is the way Brockes weaves tidbits about musicals into the broader picture. I think the book is about musicals impact on modern life more than a memoir about the author's relationship with her mother, which is probably why the last chapter was lost on me.
August 24, 2013
It's perfectly fine to love musicals. Ms. Brockes takes it to a whole new level. What's worse, is that she gets to write about it and inflict her opinion on us.
Here we have a seemingly intelligent person who feels that everyone who doesn't appreciate musicals on the deep level that she does is not worth the effort. The obnoxious tone of the whole volume gets to you after a while and you feel like there's no hope for you.
As much as I love musicals, this volume turned me off them for fear that I might become like her- bitter and twisted towards anyone that doesn't own all 260 recordings of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Save yourself some time and avoid this book. I give it two stars because at least she writes in a sophisticated manner and it's on a topic that doesn't (normally) bore me.
Here we have a seemingly intelligent person who feels that everyone who doesn't appreciate musicals on the deep level that she does is not worth the effort. The obnoxious tone of the whole volume gets to you after a while and you feel like there's no hope for you.
As much as I love musicals, this volume turned me off them for fear that I might become like her- bitter and twisted towards anyone that doesn't own all 260 recordings of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Save yourself some time and avoid this book. I give it two stars because at least she writes in a sophisticated manner and it's on a topic that doesn't (normally) bore me.
June 26, 2013
I recently read a book with a similar title - What Would Grace Do? - and that book was a mini biography of Grace Kelly with life lessons that you can learn from parts of her life. I didn't expect this book to be exactly the same, but it was totally different - there was very little in the book about Barbra Streisand at all! The author pretty much only devoted one chapter to Barbra Streisand, and the rest of the book to somewhat snarky comments about many other musicals. For a book that is subtitled "How Musicals Changed My Life" I thought that the author would like musicals more. Maybe it was the author's intention to be funny, but her constant denigration of things in musicals gave the totally opposite impression.
December 13, 2009
Hugely entertaining. I know just enough about the genre to chuckle/snort at most of the references without having to worry about challenging Brockes' knowledge of them.
I wasn't entirely comfortable with the ending, stylistically. It felt almost a little tacked on, after the dryly amusing facts and figures and observations of musical productions, to suddenly switch gears and become a story in the last chapter of the book. Maybe it would've worked better for me as an epilogue - I don't know.
Still a fun little book. And a nice tribute to Brockes' mother, whose influence throughout her daughter's life (not limited to just movies) is apparent.
I wasn't entirely comfortable with the ending, stylistically. It felt almost a little tacked on, after the dryly amusing facts and figures and observations of musical productions, to suddenly switch gears and become a story in the last chapter of the book. Maybe it would've worked better for me as an epilogue - I don't know.
Still a fun little book. And a nice tribute to Brockes' mother, whose influence throughout her daughter's life (not limited to just movies) is apparent.
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