The Q Guide to Broadway: Stuff You Didn't Even Know You Wanted to Know...about the Hits, Flops the Tonys, and Life upon the Wicked Stage

by Seth Rudetsky

The Great White Way has paved the way for some of the most legendary performers in history. But Broadway is more than a street, it’s a community. In this Q Guide, a true Broadway expert takes theater fans on the ultimate insider’s tour.

Genres: Theatre, Nonfiction, LGBT

170 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2006

About the author

Seth is the Broadway host, seven days a week, on Sirius Satellite Radio. As a pianist, Seth has played for more than a dozen Broadway shows including RAGTIME, LES MIZ and PHANTOM. He was the Artistic Producer/Music Director for the first five annual Actors Fund Fall Concerts including DREAMGIRLS with Audra MacDonald (recorded on Nonesuch Records) and HAIR with Jennifer Hudson (recorded on Ghostlight Records, Grammy Nomination). In 2007 he made his Broadway acting debut playing Sheldon (singing “Magic to Do” in a devastating unitard) in THE RITZ directed by Joe Mantello for The Roundabout Theater. Off-Broadway he wrote and starred in the critically acclaimed RHAPSODY IN SETH (directed by Peter Flynn) at the Actors Playhouse and has also appeared on TV on LAW AND ORDER C.I. and had a recurring role on ALL MY CHILDREN. As an author, he penned the books THE Q GUIDE TO BROADWAY, now in it’s third printing, and the recently published BROADWAY NIGHTS which was just released as an audio book on audible.com featuring Andrea Martin, Jonathan Groff and Kristin Chenoweth . Recently he was the vocal coach on MTV’s LEGALLY BLONDE reality show and he currently writes a weekly column on Playbill.com.

Reviews

[Wagrobanite · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read Seth's other book before this one, there are a couple of stories that are in that book that come from here but its all good. This is one amazing book and should be considered the bible for any Musical theatre person (as well as the Rent Bible). Seth's stories as well as amazing storytelling abilities make this book absolutely fantastic. I was laughing out loud at so many times in the book! MUST READ!

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seth Rudetsky takes you on an insider's Guide to Broadway...from the restaurants, tickets, lingo, history, trivia quizzes (of which I almost aced), and more...The downside was the newest show in this book was Wicked, which does date the book and the stars mentioned, but it was still an interesting read.

[Jana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up at a local book sale, and it's definitely showing its age a bit. But as a longtime fan of Seth and Broadway in general, I was pleased to find there were a couple stories in here that were new to me!

[r_o_s_e__]

seth I NEED TO SPEAK TO YOU! we would have some wonderful conversations about broadway drama......... please contact me

this was such a fun read

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This could easily be retitled, "Broadway 101" or "Broadway For Novices". There is a wealth of introductory information for those with limited knowledge about all things Broadway-- and it's told with a gay slant-- but not so much so that it limits it's benefits for any reader.

From history to how to get tickets to recommendations of some of the best shows of all time-- this book is a primer on where to start your exploration.

As someone continuing their 30+ year love affair with Broadway, I didn't really find anything here that I didn't already know. As always though, Rudetsky has assembled a book full of incite and passion.

[Teri · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting and there was new 'stuff'. Had I not just seen "Every little Step" I would not have known that in early workshop days Cassie is cut. That's in this book. For some reason he felt the need to put a 'gay' feature about every musical he was expounding on. I don't understand why he feels the need to do that. A co-worker listens to his radio program and thinks he's a bit arrogant. It came through in his writing style.

It does make me want to find someone the cds to some of the musicals I've never heard of.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does contain a lot of stuff you may already know (and the occasional annoying - actors' names misspelled - or hilarious - "tush tickets" - typo), but the stories are wonderful and his album recommendations are spot-on.

[Asha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious and full of valuable information. A must-read for any fan of Broadway.