No comments about The Death of Character (Drama and Performance Studies).

4 comments about Coming up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s.

1. Written by an authority on the American musical, he has followed up with different decades on the Broadway stage. This rich decade of the Fifties now entered its most revolutionary phase of redefining itself and forging a new kind of musical storytelling.
   
   This great era contained a flurry of revivals in the early '50s and almost all of the top musicals were made into movies for those of us in smaller towns who could not go to New York City. In fact, the stars of the movies were more to our taste anyway.
   
   In 1951, PAINT YOUR WAGON and THE KING AND I had many lovely songs for us to sing in local talent shows or pantomime as need be. PAL JOEY was revived in 1952 from the 1940 version and went on to star Frank Sinatra in the movie, "Bewitched" was the best song. CAN CAN surfaced in 1953, as did Mary Martin in PETER PAN. OKLAHOMA! (some call the best musical of all -- had the most hits), based on 'Green Grow the Lilacs,' was on stage in 1955 as was DAMN YANKEES (from which the song '(You Gotta Have) Heart' came. In 1956, we discover Sammy Davis, Jr. as MR WONDERFUL, and Judy Holliday in BELLS ARE RINGING. MY FAIR LADY with Julie Andrews as Eliza made a big splash in 1956. WEST SIDE STORY was a big hit in 1957 with Carol Lawrence.
   
   In 1956, every radio station in America was playing the "My Fair Lady" record album. She later starred in the biggest musical of that time, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, and starred in the movie as well. She was the original Queen Guivenere in CAMELOT on Broadway.
   
   GYPSY was Ethel Merman's biggest success. Television was loaded with musical revues full of star talent, for free. Eddie Fisher's COKE TIME, led the way and one of the songs he sang so well, 'Fanny,' came from the Broadway play of the same name which starred Ezio Pinza.
   
   Other wonderful musicals from that decade include KISMET with Howard Keel and Vic Damone, THE PAJAMA GAME with John Raitt, THE MUSIC MAN, GUYS & DOLLS, FLOWER DRUM SONG, CAROUSEL, SOUTH PACIFIC, BRIGADOON, AND SHOWBOAT (revised from the '20s). Some previously unknown singers made their debuts during the Fifties, Harry Belafonte, Ethel Waters, Eartha Kitt, among others.
   
   CARMEN JONES was 'Aida' in Memphis, Tennessee, in the 1860s and THE GOLDEN APPLE was resetting 'Iliad and Odyssey' in America in the early 1900s about the Trojan War, and Helen was played by Kaye Ballard.
   
   "The musical play's dramatic possibilities not only led them to major work but encouraged them to revise the science of craftsmanship as they went along." Some talents in Broadway's history have been essentially musical play talents such as Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein, Agnes de Mille, and Hal Prince. Some have been musical comedy talents, like Lorenz Hart, George Abbott, Carol Channing, Harold Rome, Bob Merrill, and Gwen Verdon. Some moved freely between the two worlds, most specifically George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Robbins, and Alfred Drake. One was the essential musical comedy talent -- Bob Fosse.
   
   This was a glorious coming-of-age time for lots of us and the best of the musical world for the whole world.



2. I'd probably enjoy reading a dictionary if Ethan Mordden wrote it. It's probably the highest praise I can give to say that this book had me reading about shows I'd never even heard of with the same zeal I'd generally reserve for a well-written suspense novel. As much as this book is about Musical Theater, it's about Ethan Mordden -- his wit, his stunning knowledge of his subject, and his ability to place what might seem trivial into a context that both illuminates and fascinates. Reading this book amounts to the best kind of education: one you simply can't wait to continue. As the previous customer reviews have already covered the general contents of this book, I'll only add that "Coming Up Roses" is one of a series of books by Mordden which catalogs the history of American Musical Theater. Before I even finished "Roses," I had purchased copies of his "Beautiful Mornin'" (about Musicals of the 1940's) and "Make Believe" (the 1920's). His next edition -- "Open a New Window: Musicals of the 1960's" -- will be published November 2001. I'm absolutely hooked, and if you have a passion for Musicals, you're going to be, too. About that title of mine....Mordden's book has me hunting in used record stores for recordings of long-forgotten (and sometimes obscure) titles. This author has done a tremendous service to countless composers, performers and theater artists in recalling their work in its original incarnation, and causing us to reflect upon it one more time. Maybe we're the lucky ones, in fact; thanks to Ethan Mordden, the curtain keeps going up again and again and again.



3. For anyone interested in American musical theater, the 1950s are a critically important "golden age" both for the musical play and the musical comedy. In 1950 Rodgers and Hammerstein, who had introduced the concept of the musical play in 1943 with OKLAHOMA, were preparing their richest and most timeless work, THE KING AND I, which opened the following year. Even the more traditional musical comedy reached new heights with Loesser's GUYS AND DOLLS, perhaps the most perfectly constructed work of this type ever written. As a testament to their status as classics, both of these breakthrough shows were highlights not only of the 50s, but also of the 90s. Year by year through the decade, Ethan Mordden cites scores of shows to trace developments for both of these musical forms. Having mined the large legacy of recordings still available, backstage stories, critical reviews, and script and musical analyses, Mordden highlights how each show advanced the genre or failed to. He spends whole chapters on the biggest hits-GUYS AND DOLLS, KISMET and MY FAIR LADY-as well as the commercial flops like CANDIDE, which took almost 20 years of tinkering to become a success. Mordden astutely analyzes many other shows, showing how THE PAJAMA GAME "is a so-so-story with an excellent book," but DAMN YANKEES "is an excellent story with a functional book." Mordden also examines the mere flops like FLAHOOLEY and the real "floppos" like ANKLES AWEIGH detailing what worked and what didn't. Mordden ends the decade with discussions of WEST SIDE STORY and GYPSY, two totally different blockbusters illustrating how far the musical had developed by 1959, and how audiences were being prepared for more confrontational works-to-come like CABARET. As in his previous books, "Rodgers & Hammerstein" and "Broadway Babies," Mordden has done his homework. From his photo on the jacket, he can't be old enough to have seen these original productions such as REDHEAD, yet his detailed descriptions of stagings and choreography read like he was actually there in 1958 taking notes. Over the last few years critical (and commercial) interest in the musical theater as America's unique contribution this century has steadily increased. Production companies in New York, San Francisco and elsewhere are reviving and recording concert versions of musicals going back to the very earliest shows so we can relish firsthand the creative arc from the "Princess shows" of Jerome Kern beginning in 1915 to today's hits. Ethan Mordden's "Coming Up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s" is an invaluable, readable and entertaining guide to one of its most important and productive periods. ---ENK, Oakland



4. I highly recommend this survey of 1950s muscials. Mordden, as he showed in his book on Rodgers and Hammerstein, is much more than a musicals fan. He really challenges assumptions about classic shows and makes you want to reconsider the shows that flopped. I particularly enjoyed his assessment of Kismet. Only thing missing is a discography.

5 comments about Nothing is Impossible: Reflections on a New Life.

1. Christopher Reeves will continue to be an inspirtion to all of us, and will influence other genertions with his insight, and courge, of trying to make the public more aware of Spinal Cord Injuries.
   He was indeed, a 'real Superman!'
   God Bless his family for allowing us all to know him better.
   Fran & Dean Johnson



2. I just reread this book, and it brought back how much I admired Mr. Reeve and his bride. I really think this should be required reading to anyone that has had a spinal injury, or an amputation, just to show them that they are NOT the first to feel all these negitive feelings.
   
   A wonderful tribute to the Reeves in general.



3. In this little book, Christopher Reeve principally seeks to show the value of hope. He talks about the surprising progress he made in recovering as a quadriplegic after a terrible accident. (Long after doctors believed recovery was possible, Reeve began to show improved movement.) He also talks at length about the politicization of stem cell research and how that has likely stymied further progress on relieving many human disabilities. Despite his clear feelings on the issue, Reeve is sympathetic to people with deep religious reasons for opposing stem cell research, just not those who do so as political posturing.
   
   Along the way, Reeve talks about his brush with Scientology (a fascinating glimpse of a religion that's been so much in the news), his other religious searchings, his initial thoughts of ending his life after his accident, how he and his family have dealt with his quadriplegia, and his work as an advocate for health research.
   
   This is a quick and enjoyable read. Reeve's insights on the nature and role of hope will be strengthening to people who struggle with any of a range of issues from physical to emotional to spiritual. Reeve himself reads the unabridged audio CD version; I recommend it.



4. I picked up this book at my school's library and started glancing through it. It's possibly one of the most motivational and inspirational books I've seen! Reeve recounts all of his trials and how he learned to function again. Throughout it all, he stayed strong with his wife Dana, who supported him through everything. A must read!



5. Christopher Reeve died almost 3 months ago i am researching him and he fell off the horse and still survived and even though he was real hurt alot he cared of other people he was a good athlete and especially actor.He was a huge survivor.
   In Memoriam,
   Christopher Reeve

2 comments about Move.

1. After reading reviews in magazines, I was really interested in this book. What I found was VERY surprising and so much more intense than what the reviews and sample pages show. It made me wholly appreciate the beauty of the human body even more. Maybe I missed it somewhere but I had no idea the book was for AIDS ("Move for AIDS"). Also, IT WAS A HUGE BOOK. It really gave a second level when I was going through the book.
   The diversity of the dancers was amazing, definitely targeting a more world wide audience for a universal cause.
   
   Only reason I didn't give it a 5 was because of some of the blurry pictures towards the back. The first couple I appreciated for its intensity and 'movement.' But after awhile I started getting a headache.



2. This is an amazing piece of work by an extremely gifted artist for a superworthy cause. The content is beautiful and inspiring through the mere aesthetic of the dancer's form and grace. It speaks without words. My only issue with it was the actual physical condition of the book itself. There are some light scratch marks on the cover, a deep pockmark-like dent on the front, and one of the corners is smashed.

3 comments about Manor House: Life in an Edwardian Country House.

1. If you share my opinion that Manor House is one of the best reality series, you'll enjoy this book. As thorough as the series was, there are reams or reels or whatever of footage that never made it onto TV, so this book provides more information about Edwardian life, the participants and events of the series. It's an oversize book which unfortunately makes for awkward reading -- and it does have a lot of text that you'll want to read. However, the size makes for good display of photos, including many taken in Edwardian times and even at Manderstone, the house where the series was shot. So you see that they really did dress up in a thousand items of clothing just to watch cricket on the lawn or stroll around the grounds. A fascinating addition to a well-made series. I loved the series and could have watched ten times what they showed on TV and therefore really appreciate this book.



2. I missed most of the series on PBS, but what I saw looked very good, much better than the earlier 1900 House. This book is the companion to the TV program and is really better suited to those who have seen it as I found some parts a little confusing due to not having watched most of it.
   The book gives a good background on the house itself but is skimpy on the program, reads almost like it is about a real Edwardian family, no details on family selection or what happened after their stay was over.
   All of the photographs are very good, the little extra sections on the cast I found interesting (likely would've been better if I'd actually seen the show), the side bits on foods and other items were even interesting.
   I did notice that, as in 1900 House, the experts setting up made a surprising blunder, here they forgot to check the possibility that a decades unused chimney might be blocked (which it was). Another thing I found little mention of was the Silver stair railing (does the show mention it?), something so unusal and only a couple of photo captions about it.
   Not enough to be a time travelers textbook but a very good companion to the series.



3. This is an excellent companion to the Manor House series on PBS. It combines the historical background of the Edwardian period, information about each of the participants in the project, recipes and instructions for making items seen in the series, and information that was not shown during the series, such as the story behind the pig's head (and whether Monsieur Dubiard was trying to gross out the Oliff-Coopers) and more about Guy's education (a surprise there!). I only wished it had information on the selection process and what happened after the series ended.

5 comments about Special Effects: An Oral History--Interviews with 37 Masters Spanning 100 Years.

1. This book was worth every penny! All the greats have been intervued, and there are interesting and fun facts all over! I have had loads of smiles, laughs and serious thoughts from this book!



2. That was cool journey to the world of Cinematography! All this stuff was new to me and still is. Me - I myself study, learn 3D animations, but reading this book found that in Cinematography's world there a lot more things that I found amazing. This book definitely gave me huge portion of inspiration. Now I take a totally different view to movies and animations, especially old school 2D.



3. The book covers the subject very well, but has a number of minor errors. Sometimes they are represented as quotes by someone who would obviously know better. Example - it has stopmotion animator Phil Tippet saying you remove the surface gauge, then move the puppet, then put it back in the same place to measure the move, which I very much doubt he said. (You leave the gauge there while you move the puppet so you can see how far you moved, then remove it to take the shot.) Other technical processes are not clearly explained, and may also be wrong - I'm not expert enough to be certain with all of them.
   There are occasional signs of a literal translation from the French - pate a modelier (plasticine or modelling clay) is not called "modelling paste" in English - but it presents no problems. On the up side, it includes the work of some French and other European effects artists that have been overlooked in most American books on the subject.
   It goes into all the different areas of special effects in separate sections, although obviously there is a good deal of overlap between fields like makeup effects and animatronics. Despite minor flaws, I'm very glad to have bought this book - it does add a lot that is not in other books.



4. Most of the book is pretty good, I have a number of specialeffects books in my collection and have subscribed to CINEFEX magazine for many years. However there seem to be facts that are not checked and therefore some inaccuracies. The best example I can think of is the description of how Robby the Robot was constructed. The books describes fairly precisely the prosses know as Vacu-Form though never labels it. Which is odd because from all other accounts Robby was Fiberglass and there was only one made. If he was Vacu-Formed, a simple prosses once set up and molds made the studio doubless would have made at least three, if for no other reason that he would have be fragile. I may be nit picking. An I could be wrong



5. As a charter subscriber to Cinefex magazine, the 25-year industry bible for visual effects, I'm no stranger to this topic. But flipping through Pinteau's book yielded some exciting revelations and mostly, It did not disappoint. The book promises interviews with masters "spanning 100 years" although it skews pretty heavily to the past decade (not a surprise). But I bought it for the pictures and they made it worth the time and money. The pics are well-chosen and even familiar old films are illustrated with scenes seen less often. I also like the durable hard/soft cover---because I'll be picking this one up frequently.

No comments about The Film Comedy Reader.

No comments about The Man With the Movie Camera: The Film Companion (KINOfile).

No comments about The Cable and Satellite Television Industries: (Part of the Allyn & Bacon Series in Mass Communication) (Allyn & Bacon Series in Mass Communication).

5 comments about Inside Gilligan's Island: A Three-Hour Tour Through The Making Of A Television Classic.

1. If you're going to buy this you probably want the inside scoop on how the show came to be made and what it was like while it was being made. That's what you get. ON the downside, I found the writing style to be very strange. If I was critiquing this as a story someone had written and submitted for review online, I probably would have moved on and critted another story because this one would have seemed a hopelessly huge undertaking to crit. There was one part where there were some frogs near a door. In a normal story maybe you'd read a mention of this once but in this story he keeps going on and on about the frogs. Its just really weird in its style. But it tells the story of the show and that's why I got it so I'm giving it 5 stars for accomplishing what I wanted it to do.



2. Sherwood Schwartz makes no high-culture claims about "Gilligan's Island." It is a fantasy sit-com (albeit one with an underlying theme of diversity and community). This book takes a wonderful look at what Mr. Schwartz went through to get his vision (like it or not, the concept was created by Mr. Schwartz, and Mr. Schwartz alone) on the air. From network executives who tried to change everything about his show, to casting, to scoring and more. Whether you like "Gilligan" or not, you have to admire Mr. Schwartz's guts and tenacity in seeing his idea through to fruition. Thanks for reading.



3. Whatever you think of "Gilligan's Island" (a classic "idiot" sitcom comes to my mind) you have to appreciate that the show's creator Sherwood Schwartz is the one that wrote "Inside Gilligan's Island." The volume promotes itself as "A three-hour tour through the making of a television classic," and within these pages fans of the show will find out where the Howells got all those clothes, learn if Gilligan and the Skipper ever got hurt when the coconuts hit them on the head, discover what was "Lovey's" real name, and shudder to find out what kind of a pet the studio almost gave Gilligan. All of the cast members, even Tina Louise, make brief appearances in the book's Forewords, and the pages are filled with the rare publicity stills you would hope to find, including some nice color shots.

   "Inside Gilligan's Island" is worth reading for students of television simply for the story of how Schwartz got the show on the air in the first place, which includes the "original" calypso version of the theme song ("Off Florida coast many hundred miles, Is tropical sea full of tropic isles...") and the "complementary" casting of Dawn Wells and Tina Louise (whatever disparaging comments you may rightful inflict upon this television show the Mary Ann or Ginger choice is now a time honored right of passage for adolescent males in this country). Actually, most of the book is devoted to the story of how "Gilligan's Island" got on the air. The show does not actually do so until chapter 22 of 35. Despite all the jokes about the show, it was a hit that managed to win its time period the first three years on the air despite being on three different nights and three different time periods. The final half-dozen chapters have to do with the assorted sequels that found the Castaways rescued, dealing with the Harlem Globetrotters, and other strange fates ("Gilligan's Island: The Musical").

   The result will be something of a treat for fans of the series and contain enough stories about the machinations of Hollywood to be of benefit to others as well. The first Appendix provides rather detailed synopses of the 98 episodes of "Gilligan's Island," with Schwartz even providing themes for each episode so that the reader is aware there is more than comedy going on when a crate washes into the lagoon containing a lion ("Feed the Kitty"), but a life lesson ("You can never be sure you've taken the 'wild' out of wild animals"). A second Appendix provides synopses of the various movies and specials as well.




4. Inside Gilligan's Island is an interesting but not spectacular book on the creation of a television phenom. If you are a Gilligan fan it will likely be a must read. If you are not it will be a mixed bag for you.

   Mr. Schwartz does a great job describing the battles to get the show made and gets the pages turning as we wonder if his series will ever be what he wants it to be.

   Unfortunately as the book reaches its later chapters it is evident that he has run out of things to say. The last three chapters are a positive chore to read.

   The epidsode guide is interesting and is many of the behind the scenes production stories, this likely differs greatly from the cast members stories which deal more with the actual production etc.

   Throughout the book however it seems that Mr. Schwartz is preaching. Now when he put wanted to make a social point with the series he wrote it funny (such as using his own example the implicet respect for marriage see episode 68 Mr. & Mrs.) and taught the lession without giving a speech, we get the speech in the book and its just dulls you away.

   I did like the book, I don't know if I'd like it enough to buy it again, but I like it enough to read it again.




5. I have always been a great fan of Gilligan's Island but this book by its creator leaves a lot to be desired. Mr. Schwartz obviously went through a lot getting the show on the air but his description of his efforts seems to be very self-centered and like one man's battle against all odds. Even if this was true, it might have been better if someone else had written it. The book was not about the show so much as it was about Sherwood Schwartz.

   Mr. Schwartz also seems to blame others for the show's demise and failure to be revived in the late 1970s following the "Rescue From Gilligan's Island" movie. I agree that I thought the show died a pre-mature death. But the success of the "Rescue From Gilligan's Island" movie was probably more attributable to curiousity than to its entertainment value. The original movie was disappointing and subsequent sequels were dismal. He deserves credit for a fun and entertaining TV show but he also deserves criticism for less fun and less entertaining TV shows thereafter.