2 comments about One Act Plays for Acting Students: An Anthology of Short One-Act Plays for One, Two or Three Actors.

1. I am always searching for scenes or short plays for student actors and this gives a great variety of characters and situations with which to work. Some are even good enough to produce in a festival setting. All are very short, which works well in a classroom setting.



2. This anthology of one-act plays has a wide variety of styles and formats. From comedy to drama. Women and men. It is very helpful when trying to research a new character for an audition because the character have a wide range of ages and backgrounds.

2 comments about The Holly Woodlawn Story: A Low Life in High Heels.

1. This book is so funny you'll lay down and scream. I think it's a modern day classic and should be required reading for every literature class in America and beyond. And I'm not just saying that because I wrote it. I'm saying it because I need an increase in my royalty checks because I'm out of cocktail cash and who can function without that?



2. I have never seen one of Andy Warhol's films and that did not stop me from being able to understand this book. Andy Warhol is a peripheral figure here and that helps to dispel the idea that he sucked all of his Superstars dry. Though Holly has intense love-hate relationships with every drag queen she introduces, it is great seeing work on how trans women relate, or fail to relate, to each other. This book portrays George Cukor, the Golden Age film director, as supporting Holly, but in his own biography, the writer noted that Cukor hated feminine gay men intensely. I am not sure which book is telling the truth.
   
   Holly shows how she has seen so much and been through so much. Though she never mentions being directly involved, she stated that she saw the Stonewall Riots as they happened and she remembered when gay men were first coming down with what would be called AIDS. She was there to see the rise of Studio 54. She even mentions being around before the B-52s and Blondie became famous.
   
   Holly goes through the struggles that many transgendered people face. But she is never able to vocalize that or politicize the issue. In this book, she faces homelessness, job insecurity, poverty, and rampant drug and alcohol abuse. I wish she could have pointed to her life as a reason for gender conformists, of any sexuality, to support trans individuals. Then again, this book, and Holly herself, are highly apolitical. Further, her identification as a gay man, a woman, and a transvestite are blurred here. In fact, she goes into detail about her sexual contact with women but speaks quickly of her contact with men. I am not sure what explained the heterosexism behind that.
   
   Though she has seen and done much, Holly is not a role model here. She is terribly irresponsible. She ruins romantic relationships that would have been life-sustaining for her. She lies to people. She runs away from problems, rather than facing them. She never mentions saving any money. She is obviously drug- and alcohol-addicted, but just laughs those issues off.
   
   On the one hand, Holly admits that she is from Puerto Rico. However, her identification with Puerto Ricans, and other people of color, is close to nil. She portrays Puerto Ricans as aggressive and dangerous. She referred to Puerto Rican lesbians as "chili ch*ch*s." She equally says nasty things about African Americans. Though she stated that she supported the civil rights movement and has Black relatives, she pretty much abandons her ethnicity as she arrives on the Mainland. Though she had physical relationships with Latino and Black men, she only romances white men throughout this book. She seems like she can promote gays and feminine people, but she leaves people of color in the dust.
   
   Additionally, though this book is sprinkled with French expressions, one would never think that Holly knew or remembered any Spanish. At one point, there is a headline written in Spanish that is so broken, even a freshman in high school-level Spanish could correct it. Whether this signifies that Holly is illiterate in Spanish or that her writing assistant Jeffrey Copeland doesn't know any Spanish, I am not sure, But it's pretty pathetic no matter what the cause.
   
   The first two chapters of the book differ from the rest of the book. Obviously, they want to place campiness and the height of her fame first before they got into her childhood. Her epilogue says close to nothing. She obviously wasn't thinking hard about the conclusion.

4 comments about Tony Curtis: The Autobiography.

1. What a courageously written book this is. I don't necessarily agree with all of Mr. Curtis's candidly expressed opinions, but I've never read a movie memoir that was so openly honest. It's very difficult in our society to transcend social strictures against open vanity, regardless of how well deserved. It's also open about sexuality in suprising ways.
   
   Mr. Curtis speaks as freely about his foibles and problems as he does about his extraordinary handsome face, which Edward G. Robinson, quoted in the book, called his sonne punim in Yiddish (beautiful face).
   
   I grew up watching TC's films and have an original lobby card from "The Great Imposter" on my movie wall. His "Houdini" was among my favorite films when I first began going to them alone, as were his swashbucklers and later, his dramatic roles. I still think he's one of the most underrated actors of his era. He deserved the Oscar for "Sweet Smell of Success."
   
   I think eventually this book will be recognized as a unique classic among movie memoirs. It's remarkable for it's fidelity to the truth as TC saw it as opposed to the fictions penned by so many others.
   
   It's long past time to give this man some sort of major industry award.



2. I have enjoyed reading this book. I find Tony's blunt honesty amusing. I will be reading along and suddenly laugh out loud over something he has said just because it is so plain-spokenly blunt. Of course I would hate for that bluntness to be used against me.

   Curtis is kind towards his first wife Janet Leigh. Maybe that is because she has been kind towards him. It seems that he doesn't have much to do with his other ex-wives. At the time this book was published he was married to a girl named Lisa.

   Curtis also was/is very sensitive about his being Jewish and how he was picked on as a kid, and as an adult (the stuffed, taped tail-pipe in Germany-read the book to find out what that is about).

   Curtis was always a very good-looking man and he knew it, and he's honest about knowing it. His idol was Cary Grant. He wanted to make movies with Marilyn Monroe and Mae West so he could say he and Grant were the only actors to make movies with both. Curtis' tale about filming "Sextette" with Mae West is hilarious.

   I love his honesty, but there is alot of anger in him. Too bad he couldn't get therapy to work that out. It probably contributed to the break-down of his marriages, and his drug habits in the past. You have to give him credit for surviving though.

   I have to say that his performance in "Sex and the Single Girl" is one of my very favorites. He and Natalie Wood had such a strong on-screen chemistry.




3. This book is perfect if you want to read about TC, other famous people, the movies, or a young boy who went through a lot and grew up to be famous and go through some rough times again. TC tells us about his childhood, his teenage years, his brothers, his women, his kids, his films, he makes us laugh and he makes us cry. He is an amaizing guy. This autobiography, with the help of BP, is a brilliant read. It's not just for people who were around in the sixties either. I'm 16 and have read this book twice. I recomend this book to anyone that is a fan like me, or anyone who likes to read a good book.



4. Explicit account from the man himself Tony Curtis of his vastly changing life style from his early days on the poor streets of the Bronx New York, to the high life as a young Hollywood star. One of the most well known celebrities that came from the later part of the Hollywood star stable, his biography is unusual in its style as it integrates the voices of Tony's friends and family along side Tony's own narrative, painting a very explicit and vastly interesting life. It pulls no punches and tells it as it is , and is a must read for all his fans. Including information On the Persuaders starring Tony Curtis and Roger Moore. ITC action adventure programme first broadcast in 1971

5 comments about The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made.

1. You've got to hand it to the New York Times film critics. For one thing, they have the absolute best NAMES of anyone in the cine/crit biz. Can you ask for better monikers than Vincent Canby, Bosley Crowther, Hilton Kramer or(my favorite) Mordaunt Hall? More recent critics like Janet Maslin, Stephen Holden or A.O. Scott (not included here, he's so new) may not have such professorial sounding handles, but they more than make up for said lack in their actual writing, which in all their cases generally reflects a critical sensibility which is both casual and scholarly. They likely benefit from the increased seriousness with which the artform itself has been taken over the past century and from simply having a sense of film history that their critical forebears could not have possessed. (They know that the movies are NOT some passing fancy that in time may go.) And stylistically, they tend to be leaner, meaner and much less flowery than,say, the aforementioned Mr. Hall.
   
   But times do change, and critical writing styles along with them. What makes this book so fascinating is that its editors have seen fit to re-print the original reviews, unedited and unannotated (although editor Peter M. Nichols notes in his preface, that almost every film's "cast box" has been expanded and terminology, in some instances, changed). If the reader, takes in Mr. Nichol's preface and/or Janet Maslin's introduction, he or she won't be surprised to learn that many of the actual reviews included in this volume are indifferent or downright negative. Browsers casually thumbing through this reference work on the "thousand best movies," however, are likely to be a bit more puzzled to find one negative review after another.
   
   It happened to me, I opened the alphabetically arranged volume to the "D's" and immediately found a fairly negative critique of DIVA and a fairly lukewarm one of DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES. That's when I opted to read the introductory remarks, but even then it wasn't quite clear just how these 1,000 best were picked or just who did the picking.
   
   Yes, aside from the actual reviews, there are Top Ten Lists for the years 1931-1998 (the volume itself was published in '99 and is thus about due for an update), but these don't necessarily correspond to the selections either. For instance, the 1967 John Boorman film POINT BLANK gets a so-so review from Mr. Crowther, and is not included in the list of the year's best (suggesting that his colleagues were similarly unmoved by the film). So who decided, in the interim, that it really IS a gem (rough and uncut though it may be)? Editor Nichols? Janet Maslin? General critical consensus (which seems doubtful in this case).
   
   Nichols explains in the preface that we can expect such turnabouts "for films that have risen in common estimation..." since their initial reviews were published. That's certainly true in the cases of BONNIE AND CLYDE, CHINATOWN and GRAND ILLUSION (to cite his own examples), but again I ask you, how to account for the inclusion of POINT BLANK?? Or--to go from a Lee Marvin vehicle to a Lee Remick starrer--why is even a good, solid drama like the above mentioned DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES included? That film is something of a sentimental favorite of mine, since I was 13 when I first saw it and felt very grown up indeed to be able to "understand" this obviously adult drama. But objectively speaking, can one really include this relatively modest revision of a TV drama on a list of the all-time greats of CINEMATIC history.
   
   Well, not to worry. In the last analysis, one man's canon is another man's fodder, so it's probably best to not fret too much what's included or not included on this or any "best of" volume. What you get, if you're lucky, are some good tips on things you might otherwise have missed. Taken in that spirit, the NYT guide joins many others in aiding movie lovers of all stripes to make some intelligent selections. In this case, you just have to keep in mind that the significant factor is not the actual review but the fact that someone somewhere along the line ultimately saw fit to include the movie in this esteemed reference guide of record.
   
   As far as the actual 1,000 best films ever made. You could argue about that until the cows come home...from the movies.



2. There have been stretches of time in which I was almost oblivious to movies and recently I decided to repair my cultural lacunas. I signed up with Netflix, moved a recliner to the living room and stocked up on Diet Coke. Now, what to list on my queue? Most of those movie books have such abbreviated descriptions... If I'm going to wile away a couple hours, I need to be convinced it's time well spent. I spotted the updated and revised (through 2002) best 1000 movies according to the Times, and noticing the inclusion of a couple obscure favorites, bought the book. The movies are in alphabetical order with the personnel listed first and the date of the review at the end of the narrative. Twenty-nine critics lend their views about films going back to 1931. Hollywood productions dominate, though there is a good smattering of independents and foreign works.
   
   The reviews stand as they were written on opening night, without further comment- a very New York Times thing to do. Many of the reviews hold up as well as their subjects- "Casablanca", "On the Waterfront" and "Star Wars" were appreciated from the get go. However, many glossy Oscar winners are excluded: "Dances with Wolves", "Titanic" and "American Beauty" are absent. "As Good as It Gets" is not good enough, but "About Schmidt" is about as good a review as Nicholson can get- it's included. Is there a Merchant-Ivory film that was somehow overlooked? Highly unlikely.
   
   In the back of this compendium, the Times lists its 10 Best for each year. Quite a few of these movies do not have their review among the currently favored 1000, though their fall is not explained. Of course, the most striking contradiction is to find a movie that was condemned as irretrievable trash on release, only to have wormed its way up from the flotsam. "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" is such a movie. R.A.'s review from 1968 will crack you up.
   
   I'm sure everybody will have a few favorites that didn't make the cut. How could a movie as hilarious as "A Fish Called Wanda" not be included? Kasdan's poignant "Grand Canyon" was somehow overlooked. Yet, a few great but obscure productions are recognized. The marvelous documentary "Brother's Keeper" is included.
   
   In the preface, A.O. Scott comments on the vagaries of cinematic appreciation. Most of us are more influenced by trends and buzz than we realize. And, if you are overdosed on a particular genre, the best of its kind may pass without notice. Still, I wish a current summation about the great classic movies had been included, even if it meant the Times had changed its mind. In conclusion, I'm still using my Guide, though if it persuades me to rent a movie, I'm not apt to admit it.



3. A notoriously contentious activity, this book is sure to start a few arguments. Picking 1,000 movies to label "best ever made" is not easy and will create some surprise at omissions and inclusions. For instance, the inclusion of "Face/Off" - which initiated my Nicholas Cage veto - and the omission of Princess Bride, is indefensible. It is a parochial list also with Hollywood movies reigning supreme. However, I love the use of contemporary reviews for each movie. Reading Frank S. Nugent's response to opening night at The Wizard of Oz in 1939 is magical and gives the movie fan a nostalgic experience. You may guffaw at some of the preposterous choices and wish for a more current update (1999 version) but you will enjoy these critical reviews of your favourite movies.



4. I won't say this is an indispensible book. Swap one film reference book for another and you're likely to learn about films and directors you otherwise wouldn't. The operative word there was likely. I've had Ebert books, Pauline Kael books, VideoHound's books, Entertainment Weekly references, etc. They are all good, but the critics works especially.
   As opposed to getting a shortened synopsis and rating system, you can get a critical eye, with contextual perspective and a detailed analysis. The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made offers that. And not from one voice but from over a dozen NYT critics over the decades.
   I don't abide by those who call this dated. It was published when it was, and though there may be updated editions, this is still a fantastic book to have. After all the majority of films made were in the 20th century, and the influence those films and filmmakers have resonates now. Including the archived reviews, which feature the NYT tradition of refering to people as Mr., Mrs., Ms. etc., each films leading castmembers, their characters, the lead production credits and film lengths are given. Plus a year-by-year list of the paper's Top 10 films, and an index of the films featured categorized by genre and country of origin.
   Oddly enough though is that there are reviews in this that are negative and sometimes scathing. Perhaps this is because the films were appreciated by other Times critics, enough to place them on the Top 10, or the films themselves have proven better than initially thought. Neither Bonnie & Clyde or Chinatown made the Top 10 list.
   But this is a trifle, and enforces the critical need that films, as art & commerce require.
   If you are a devoted film lover as I am, this book is a terrific member of any collection.



5. This book is quite dated. It was published in 1999, and unless you want to focus on movies from 1931 to 1998, this is a poor choice.
   
   There is no good reason why this book has not be updated, such as "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" which has been revised, adding 17 newer movies, and deleting 17 of the prior 1001 movies. (I wouldn't have minded them simply adding the 17 movies, without deleting any older movies.)
   
   Another good choice is Peter Travers' new "1000 Best Movies on DVD."

5 comments about Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live.

1. This book tells the highs and lows (pun intended) of the first ten years of SNL. Very interesting, it goes through the formation of the original, legendary cast through the horrible sixth season up until '86. A lot of the wounds are still new. Bil Murray was pissed off with Belushi and Aykroyd forleaving him in the lurch to Play "the white guy" in every scene. He had heated debates with Lorne and forced his sketches. We see how they underused Eddie Murphy, unforgivable in any circumstance, but just ridiculous when he was working with their worst cast up to that point.



2. This book was an amazing account of the first ten years. I had read "Live From New York" which gave detail, but this was above and beyond that. There were so many stories and personal accounts of situations that you didnt get in the other story. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan!



3. I felt like a housewife at her fence, excitedly listening to all the juicy neighborhood gossip. It's a great book, though dated.



4. Like many, I grew up watching Saturday Night Live, either new episodes or those rerun on various cable channels, marveling at the wonderful humor and originality. I had always heard urban legends surrounding the show, and its earliest moments, and when I discovered this book I knew I had to read it. The authors take you through the first several seasons of the show, showing the reader many aspects of the backstage history, from the dynamics between Lorne Michaels and the cast to the use of drugs in the early days. There are many anecdotes from tales involving the Hell's Angels to the trip Chevy Chase made to the White House to lampoon President Ford, and all of the early greats are covered from Belushi, Murphy, and Chase to O'Donoghue, Franken, and Davis. I laughed recalling many of the skits that are presented in this book, and I sit amazed as I read about many of the sorrowful topics including the decline of Garret Morris and Larraine Newman. This book is older and dated, and many of the actors that were predicted to go into obscurity have resurfaced since publication and have seemingly came into there on. It's very light hearted, even given some of the darker topics, and it is a fairly quick read as it is written in an anecdotal style. Read this book and enjoy.



5. Here's everything that happened during the first ten seasons of NBC's late night comedy-variety show Saturday Night Live. There are ten faces of previous cast members on the cover. They are the 7 original members Dan Aykroyd,John Belushi,Chevy Chase,Jane Curtin,Garrett Morris,Laraine Newman and Gilda Radner. The other three are Bill Murray,who came shortly after Chase's departure,Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy,who were both cast members from 1980 to 1984. The book even tells about the cast members' post-SNL experiences and credits. During the first 10 years,SNL had three producers:Lorne Michaels(1975-1980 and 1985 to present),Jean Doumanian(1980-81) and Dick Ebersol(1981-1985). Michaels left with the remainder of the original SNL cast with Murray in tow as well,in 1980 and returned five years later. Doumanian was fired after the disasterous 1980-81 season and was succeeded by Ebersol. Ebersol met actress Susan Saint-James when she guest hosted once in 1981. They were later married and still are today. We won't forget other previous cast members such as Gilbert Gottfried,Robin Duke,Tim Kazurinsky,Brian Doyle Murray(Bill's brother),Billy Crystal who almost became an original member,Martin Short,Joan Cusack,Julia Louis-Dreyfus,Harry Shearer and James Belushi(John's brother). For more information on subsequent seasons,check out SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE-THE FIRST 20 YEARS.

1 comments about Baryshnikov: In Black and White.

1. When I saw this book, I just had to have it. Mikhail Baryshnikov was "the best dancer alive" as praised by "Time" magazine, and remains to this day an absolutely stunning performer. The beautiful black and white photos carry more artistic weight than color could have achieved, and they illustrate his unrivaled talent and dedication to his art through both performance and rehearsal shots. If there is one small criticism to be given, it's that the text part of the book was not long enough for my liking. It covered many pages, but I simply wanted to know more. However, to be fair, that kind of indepth information is best saved for a full blown biography, and that is not this book. It is more a pictorial biography, and in this respect, it shines. Baryshnikov is a marvel, a living legend, and "Baryshnikov in Black and White" shows us why.

2 comments about Ballet and Modern Dance (World of Art).

1. Susan Au's history of ballet & modern dance is intelligent and authoritative. Where other narrative treatments often choose details seemingly randomly, Susan Au builds the narrative from the details she proffers. Nor does she lapse into odd anecdotes often found in other narrative treatments. This book corrects some errors that have been perpetuated in earlier encyclopedic volumes. I wish she had included a short section on antiquity, as I believe that some of the inspiration for and concepts in "classical" ballet and in early modern dance derive from the rediscovery of antiquity -- but this is just quibbling. If you are going to teach 19th and 20th century Western dance history, this is a reliable way to go.



2. I use this book in my ballet history course and it's a very good book for that purpose, that is, for a basic overview on the history of dance. You won't find many details on special subjects, such as specific ballets, but it's great if you want to understand the developement of ballet through the ages and know something about the people who put their marks on the ballet. Lot's of colour photgraphs. Au's use of words is sometimes a bit complicated, at least for someone who doesn't have English for a first language. But a great book.

5 comments about Margot Fonteyn: A Life.

1. Daneman, Meredith 2004 Margot Fonteyn. Viking, New York ISBN-10: 0670843709 ISBN-13 978-0670843701
   
   The dancer as a spy? One of the mysteries of Margot Fonteyn is her association and almost certain minor activities as an agent. This book hints at such (page numbers are taken from hardcover edition). First there is her association with Graham Greene, a known British agent during WWII; in an apparent inconsistency on page 265 she is said to be his lover, while on pages 279-280 he is merely said to enamored of her. On page 279 the author mentions Greene's love letters to Margot.
   
   
   By 1959, when Greene has become at least on the surface an admirer of Castro, Margot finds herself with Castro named first president Manuel Urrutia Lleó's wife, Esperanza LIaguno, who (according to the author p. 352 and 366) was ransacking the wardrobes of deposed dictator Batista's wife (Martha Fernández de Batista).
   
   
   At present admirers of Castro will not allow Grahame Greene's 1958 novel "Our man in Havana" (which most oddly predicts the 1962 presence of nuclear missiles in Cuba) to be mentioned in Wikipedia's Cuban section about authors who wrote on Cuba. These admirers of the communist dictator furiously erase each insertion of any reference to Greene and his work, giving one pause and setting one to wonder at the rationale behind this odd and extreme measure of zeal. Ernest Hemingway yes! Graham Greene No!
   
   
   Through the book runs a continual thread of the open and clandestine politics of the geo-strategic country of Panama tied to her and her husband Robert "Tito" Arias. However, the clincher is Margot's role in the defection of Russian Ballet star Rudolf Nureyev (e.g. pp. 383, 386-396 and others).
   
   The Castro government has allowed mention of some of Fontyn's activities to help impose blockade on UK weapon shipments to Cuba in late 1958 and in the Castro organized invasion of Panama by Cuban partisans of her husband Roberto Arias in 1959 (1). It was during the preparations for this invasion that the above mentioned wardrobe looting was observed by the famous ballet dancer.
   
   One day, when the British Intelligence's secret files for this period are released, perhaps we will know the whole story.
   
   [...]



2. I was very disappointed in this book about the great Margot. Was it really necessary to put in all the salacious details of her sex life in order to give us a picture of her career and life? I think a little more restraint on the part of the author was definitely in order. I wanted to learn more about the ballerina's career on stage, not especially about what she did in bed and what her sexual prowess was. I agree with the lady who said she would not recommend this book to her daughter, the budding ballerina as I thought the 'so-called' sex information on La Fontaine was tasteless and over the top.



3. I was iniciated ten years ago by the two daugthers of my wife, who have practiced ballet all their lives, in the knowlege of ballet. Before I just did not understand it, and even today know little about it. This biography, however, is beautifully written, very well researched, with a great sensitivity and it has been beautiful for me to know from the inside this life of "the most famous ballerina of the world", a life very different from a point of view and at the same time so near to our own lives.
   
   My life has been enhanced after this lecture. Now I understand a thousand times better ballet and I love it. Thanks to Meredith Daneman for her great work.



4. I enjoyed the book because Margot lead a fascinating life. And I didn't know about the end of her career and life. But I believe most readers choosing to read about Margot are not interested in her sex life. Particularly not interested in lewd statements of her prowess from any past lovers. I would have loved to recommend it to my daughter because Margot is a wonderful role model, but the sexual references make it inappropriate and I would instead recommend her Autobiography.



5. I so agree with the reviewer who said the author was lucky in her subject ... the four stars are for Margot, not Daneman. Margot's life is the history of ballet outside Russia and neither her life nor herself could fail to be fascinating. Wonderful to read all that history in one place. BUT ...
   
   Oh god, do we really need all this sleazy speculation? Most of the book is devoted to who did with who and how. According to the author, everyone did everything with everybody. This based on the slightest whiff of a rumour from any source. Instead of real descriptions about the Fonteyn/Nureyev partnership, she goes on and on and on (pages and pages, seriously) about every form of physical contact that may have occurred between them and agonizes about whether actual "penetration" (that's really a quote) occurred. According to her it's a tragedy that we will never know because they both took the secret to their graves. Actually they both categorically denied it all their lives.
   
   Fonteyn also gets a blast because when she wrote some filler in a book about Pavlova, acting as a presenter of Pavlova's own notes (NOT a biographer) she didn't tell everyone the rumour that Pavlova was (gasp) possibly illegitemite and (gasp gasp) possibly half Jewish. All Pavlova said was that her father had died when she was two and according to this author, Margot ought to have jumped right in there with the rumours and was negligent not doing so. This is a person I would never care to meet and spending 580 pages with her seriously detracts from the pleasure of spending 580 pages with Margot. Especially since, like most people who write books this long, she excelled in Creative Writing 101 and seriously needs an editor for her flowery passages.
   
   So -5 for her and + 5 for Margot equals +4, Margot being worth a lot more.

5 comments about Jesus Christ Superstar: A Rock Opera.

1. I was disappointed in the fact that music to all the songs were not included in the book. The nine songs that are in are good but to leave out the songs with Judas and the High Priests and Jesus and Pilate and Simon Zealots is not right.



2. Although this score does not include all the intermittent recitatives and orchestral arrangemtnts, it does offer a good piano transcription of the major songs with words. For anyone wnating to use any of the songs of JCS, this publication is very good.



3. For the most part, I was pretty impressed with this. There are some problems, most mentioned already. My biggest issue with this is that it doesn't include "Damned For All Time/Blood Money", my favorite song on JCS.



4. The songs included in this book are Heaven on Their Minds, Everything's Alright, Hosanna, Pilate's Dream, Last Supper, Gethsemane, King Herod's Song, and Superstar. A few things should be noted: Firstly, Heaven on their Minds does not include the "all gone sour" last four verses that are used in live productions of jcs. Instead the song is written to fade away. That might present a problem to people performing or using that song for an audition. The last supper only includes the chorus that the apostles sing. Superstar is tuned to a C instead of the original E that is on all of the recordings and live productions. Other than that, all the other keys are the same as you might hear them on cd recordings, 1973 movie, and live productions. Chords are also included for guitar players.



5. This book contains the partitures of the songs mentioned in Uppercase in the Editorial's review and the lyrics for all the other songs of this great rock-opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The partitures are written for piano, with chords for guitar and lyrics, and are quite faithful to the original songs. They aren't difficult, so you can play them without too much troubles and remember with pleasure the voices of Yvonne Elliman, Carl Anderson, Ted Neeley and the other artists. This book doesn't give you a complete satisfaction if you are instead looking for a more "seriously" thing, with all the partitures including the instrumental songs.

5 comments about Stage Makeup Step-By-Step: The Complete Guide to Basic Makeup, Planning and Designing Makeup, Adding and Reducing Age, Ethnic Makeup, Special Effects, Makeup for Film and.

1. This is a very useful tool for stage makeup. It has made my life much easier. I'm more than happy that this book is available.



2. Although I'm only somewhat enthusiastic about this title, my high school theatre students are VERY enthusiastic about it -- and so I'll amend my previous review by saying that the book has excellent photos that provide good, basic guidelines. My students enjoy opening the book to the instructions of their choice and following them (as the title states) step by step. As I happen to be the school librarian as well as the theatre director, I've added this title to our library's collection in order to make it readily available for reference. Yes, this title belongs in every high school library, and colleges and universities would do well to consider it.



3. This book's usefulness is diminished by the often heavy-handed techniques it demonstrates. The old age makeup, for instance, is poorly applied and would not register well with an audience. Swinfield is at her best with fantasy makeups such as Titania--but watch out for those techniques that can be done far better, such as the "troll's" latex nose. Beginners looking for a basic text at a reasonable price would do well to investigate Laura Thudium's "Stage Makeup"; those willing to bite the bullet and shell out the big bucks should purchase Richard Corson's "Stage Makeup," the bible of the field.



4. For the person who wants to get an excellent grounding in stage makeup, this is the place to start. It very well may be the place to end, also,unless you need to delve more deeply into special effects makeup. Rather than giving you hard and fast rules, the author explains the principles behind good makeup design and application. There are tons of pictures, and it covers most basic makeup situations for stage, with a cursory treatment of other applications such as film and television.



5. Good basic tips and ideas with clear pictures. I really wanted more detail and fantasy makeup ideas. It did give shading etc. tips but for a beginner. I would like a book that gave good clear pictures and instructions on makeup for photography, ball and wedding makeup. This book did not cover these subjects. Still I will use this book again.