A Must See!: Brilliant Broadway Artwork

by Steven Suskin

Curtain up! A Must See! proudly presents a visual feast of Broadway ballyhoo. For this compendium of graphic design excellence, theatre historian Steven Suskin combed through rare archives to bring us more than fifty years of plays and 175 compelling pieces of Broadway art. Dazzling shows and their glittering stars spill off the pages in artwork from top illustrators of the day, such as Al Hirshfeld, William Steig, Peter Arno, Alberto Vargas, and even Norman Rockwell. Covering every genre, A Must See! includes great hits ( Oklahoma! , A Streetcar Named Desire ), ignominious flops ( Kelly , Carrie ), and assorted delights in between. Throughout, Suskin peppers the text with insider information and juicy asides. Much of this material hasn't been seen since the shows closed eons ago, making A Must See! a bonanza of a browsebook -- shining with well-loved classics and surprising oddities from the beloved world of Broadway.

Genres: Art

144 pages, Paperback

First published September 9, 2004

Reviews

[Anthony McGill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of fabulous film poster books about. Unfortunately not many devoted to theatre posters and artwork. This delightful tome helps to fill the void.

A truly wonderful collection which will bring great theatrical moments of the past back to many as well as being a terrific overall history of Broadway achievements via advertising material.
The author has collected an amazing range of material. Sure there are the memorable posters ('Fiddler on the Roof' / '1776' / 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying' / 'Funny Girl' / 'Gypsy'/ 'Sweet Charity' etc.) but just as many highlights featuring lesser known and even unsuccessful productions that are brought to our notice with the significance of their stunning artwork.

Far too many delights to mention but a few stood out for me: Sidney Poitier in 'A Raisin in the Sun'; Julie Harris in 'The Lark' and 'I Am a Camera'; Beatrice Lillie in 'Set to Music'; 'The Dark at the Top of the Stairs'; 'The Emperor Jones'; 'On the Town' and 'Porgy and Bess.'

Often the artwork from a single show takes on a full page while there are two or four to a page with others and each play and musical gets a capsule comment on its history.
It should also be noted that many of the posters come from out of town engagements but all have relevance to Broadway.

This book lives up to its title!

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book gets three stars for the fabulous reproductions of theater posters. It gets between one and two stars for the editorial work. There are five categories of posters, for musicals, plays, shows with stars, unsuccessful shows, and strikingly good posters, regardless of how well the show did. These posters aren’t really arranged thematically within the categories or even chronologically. Sometimes the Broadway posters are used and sometimes the ones for a national tour, although it’s not clear why. The text for each poster is usually only two to three sentences, usually just a quote from a critic or pointing out the obvious.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful, colorful selection of posters but rather lacking in information about the artists themselves, which I understand is not always possible but should have been done where available. I would have loved to see the sections curated by artist or time period instead, to more easily see trends in theatre artwork.