Broadway Babylon

by Boze Hadleigh

The first book of theater celebrity gossip, can you believe it? Here's the book that airs Broadway's dirty laundry! Inspired by the classic Hollywood Babylon (in print for more than forty years, more than 100,000 copies sold), Broadway Babylon presents a hyper-entertaining look at the Great White Way's biggest scandals, best-kept secrets, and most over-the-top feuds. Author Boze Hadleigh, the preeminent disher of celebrity dish, serves up 400 pages of tasty, never-before-told stories about such show-biz icons as Ethel Merman, Tennessee Williams, Lucille Ball, Bette Davis, and many, many others. Get it while it's hot!

Genres: Nonfiction

342 pages, Hardcover

First published June 26, 2007

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and gossipy - done as a series of essays, which made the book more enjoyable, for me. WAY too many quotes, though - pages and pages of them, taken out of context (but mean fun though!). If you're a fan of Broadway shows and the people who are in them, check it out.

[Martin Denton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was nowhere near as snarky as I expected it to be. At its best, it offers real insight into what it was like to be one of the iconic stars of the stage: Ethel Merman and Carol Channing in particular are presented, warts and all, as difficult but focused career-first individuals. Refreshingly there's not much innuendo or slanderous nastiness, though colleagues' comments can be pro or con.

There is too much repetition, however, and several of the chapters are a little bewildering: does any likely reader of this book need to know basic info about the theater and Broadway? On the other hand, some of Hadleigh's opinions are refreshingly sound, such as his conclusion that of all the Dolly Levis so far, Shirley Booth's was the best.

[Ione · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you love Broadway and behind the scenes Broadway history, this is the book for you.

[Kelly M Hunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read

[Chy]

Too many quotes and not enough substance in this one.

[Chris Bartlett]

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