2 comments about Choral Music in the Twentieth Century.

1. This book is the first of its kind, and much needed in the world of choral literature. Up until this book, the best survey book out there was Homer Ulrich's Survey of Choral Music, which focused more on large genres, spanned the history of Western music, and only reached the 1970s. Nick Strimple, professor at the University of Southern California, has written a fantastic survey focusing the twentieth century.
   
   Strimple features music from six continents (sorry Antartica!)-- music is first classified by region, then by composer (Ulrich's book is classified more by genre, which means some skipping around). While Europe and North America receive most of the focus, considerable attention is also given to South America and regions of Africa and Asia. In addition to large works, Strimple also discusses octavos as well, making this a complete survey.
   
   The most notable element about Choral Music in the 20th Century is that it is so well-written. Descriptions of compositions are concise, descriptive, and can serve as springboards for program notes and further research. Perhaps even more impressive is how well the book holds up when read cover to cover. It is so easy for descriptions about music to sound alike after awhile (there are only so many ways one can describe an upbeat piece, for instance). Yet Strimple's prose seems unburdened by the density of research which a survey must convey.
   
   Readers should keep in mind that this is a survey of choral music -- there are no lengthy analyses or value judgments here (these pieces are great, these pieces are lousy, etc.). Otherwise the book would have been three times its size. Also, when writing a book about choral music across six continents, there are bound to be some composers or works which slip through the cracks. I can only imagine the disappointment expressed by some who didn't "make the cut."
   
   The truth is that with nothing out there like it, Strimple's book didn't have to be this good (or this inexpensive, for which Strimple and his publisher should also be credited). Due to his diligence, however, it seems this book will likely serve as the de facto survey on 20th century choral music for several decades. And there's good news -- Amazon shows that Strimple's book on nineteenth-century music is due to come out later this year. Hurrah!



2. Very good library book to have for reference re recent choral music. Lots of discussion about almost all important 20th C. works. I highly recommend it.

5 comments about Cabaret: The Illustrated Book and Lyrics.

1. I feel that the book is an excellent manual documenting the brilliant production of CABARET by one of the great theatrical directors of our times. Sam Mendes. It is readible; it's well laid out;includes personal comments and historical facts and notes/interviews; and is an interesting insight into how the show was staged including costume sketches, the conversion of the former NY Studio 54 into a "classy" cabaret, etc. The photographer brings all contents to life and the whole work borders on being a topnotched manual of all theatrical arts.



2. This book is absolutely delicious. It is filled with gorgeous, glossy photos of the entire beautiful cast, with lots of attention paid to my favorite, Alan Cumming. This book is a must have for any Cabaret fanatic. Even my roommate, who isn't really a fan, couldn't help but read it cover to cover! This book is breathtaking.



3. I just got this book. It is so neat. I couldn't stop reading it. I love Broadway shows, and this book tells so much that I want to know. The pictures in this book are also great! I have yet to see the show but this book almost makes you feel right in the theater. I fyou want a goog Braodway book, this is a VERY good choice!



4. This is the next best thing to seeing Cabaret in studio 54! Pictures of the Roundabout theater production light up this book and tells the story of the revived new musical. This book does not tell the story of the Liza Minelli version, or any of the other Cabaret versions, but of that of the revival. I have seen the new production in person, and can only say that this is the next best thing...and the book even has the whole libretto in it!



5. I've seen the movie, the revival, and I remember the original production with Joel Grey from my childhood....but nothing ever beats the book! A complete script, with stage directions and brilliantly captured moments of the play; a thick and hearty slice of life backstage at one of Broadway's most fun and intriguing shows-- get it now!

5 comments about Dancing on My Grave.

1. I went to see ABT quite often when Kirkland was a principal dancer, and when she actually showed up for a scheduled performance, she was astounding, one of the best dancers I've ever seen. I expected her memoir to be quite an enjoyable read (and I'm sorry, but anyone who frequented the ballet during the 80s knows about dancers' cocaine use and eating disorders; Gelsey didn't tear the lid off anything. I suppose today it's crystal meth. I hope not, but it's always something.)
   
   If you think you'll get any better knowledge of the dance world by reading this, forget about it. Bottom line, Kirkland was a prima donna, supposedly difficult person. Why was she difficult? Well, if you find out by reading this book, please let me know, because I still have no idea. Her writing is so lazy that she makes no attempt to explain herself to the reader. She seems to be using her readers as yet another audience for grievances she herself can't or won't articulate.
   
   I actually do see her as a tragic figure, but not because this one did this to her and that one did that to her. She's tragic because she was never forced to take responsibility for herself. Had she been, the things she might have accomplished!



2. Gelsey Kirkland blows the whistle on the dance world's less appetizing antics. Disappointingly, this book is out of print. Today she apologizes (in a recent interview with Dance Magazine) for her her aired opinions. Why??



3. In my opinion, written as a retired professional dancer, Kelsey is one of the top 3/4 female ballet dancers of all times..........when you read the book (which is fabulous) one is reduced to tears to see how she overcame the hurdles life threw at her.........love the book,(which I have reread several time) love the dancer.



4. I thought Ms. Kirkland's book was a good glimpse into her everyday life as well as her mind and what being at the top of a top ballet company in the 80's was like.



5. I've read this book twice before buying and I find that it's good the first time, but great the second time and so forth. The reason I bought it was not because of gelsey the dancer, but her as the person. My roommate and I call her crazy girl, but in a strange way you can relate through her craziness as she continues to bash on everyone around her. She calls her father a few things, Mr. B a perv who is trying to create an image unable to last by the human body, Ms. Farrell as the mold that everyone needs to copy, misha the horriable boyfriend, and so forth.
   As I said I found this book enjoyable and liked it better then the second. Even though crazy girl becomes a ballet teacher. She found peace in herself and lost the craziness that i loved. I'm glad to her as the person found it, but I as the reader miss listening to her rant about the injustice of the dance world.

5 comments about The Wizard of Oz (BFI Film Classics).

1. Watching a film armed with a "remote control zapper" can yield insights unknown to the non-stop viewer. After all, freeze frames, with their enviable power to stop time, allow for far more than infinitesimal nanoseconds of reflection. Using the "pause" trigger in this way arguably transforms it into an educational tool.
   
   Salman Rushdie, who usually frolics in literature's realm, applies this method to one of America's most beloved and taken for granted films, 1939's "The Wizard of Oz." Many in the US have let this film sink into their collective cultural unconscious without questioning its presuppositions, implications and logic. Rushdie, wielding his wireless time control device, cuts to the essence. Insights spew from the paragraphs. Almost immediately, he equates the film's story, mood, and themes to the "Bollywood" movies he grew up on in India. One exception to this comparison remains the film's secular sub themes. He summarizes, "nothing is deemed more important than the loves, cares, and needs of human beings." It also had enduring literary influence on his very first and later works.
   
   But he doesn't like the "cloying" ending and asks the almost heretical question: who would want to return to THAT Kansas? Those of us who absorbed the movie as children of course wanted, empathetically, to see Dorothy return to the safety of her parents and home. But, Rushdie argues, Dorothy's gray scale Kansas is no paradise: her parents seem impotent in the face of Miss Gulch's (aka "Wicked Witch of the West") threats against Toto (who annoys Rushdie; and in yet another probable heresy to fans, he writes, "Toto: that little yapping hairpiece of a creature, that meddlesome rug!"). So why would she want to return? Rushdie would have preferred a Dorothy who outgrows Kansas and remains in fully actualized Technicolor splendor. In the film she grows up and... goes back. Obviously, Hollywood did not want to encourage runaway fantasies. And the "there's no place like home" mantra delivers the much disseminated Great Depression message that "everything's okay. What you have is just fine." Still, he has a point about the ending's "mixed message." Longtime "Oz" fans may not appreciate this rumination, but Rushdie has never been one to please for the sake of pleasing (as his work and life more than manifest).
   
   Rushdie includes other revealing tidbits. For one, simple geometric shapes symbolize home and safety, while the shapeless and twisted stands for evil. Not only that, the movie presents, like the "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings" of today and the stage melodramas of yesterday, a strict visual and moral dichotomy of good and evil. The Good Witch Glinda's famous quote, "only bad witches are ugly," crystallizes this idea as only sound bites can. A tragedy was also averted: the producers almost removed "Over the Rainbow." Rushdie candidly calls this, "proof positive that Hollywood makes its masterpieces by accident, because it simply does not know what it is doing." In a sad revelation, the cast didn't seem to have any fun during the filming. Margaret Hamilton was injured, as was her double, and felt ostracized. Philandering Munchkins took Hollywood by storm. The film also resembles a postmodern "authorless text" by virtue of its voluminous screenwriters and recuttings. In spite of this, Rushdie heaps praise on the virtues of the film. He even calls it "art." Rushdie's deconstruction somehow makes the film more accessible and poignant. It emerges from this short essay, which also appears in Rushdie's2002 non-fiction collection "Step Across this Line" (though without pictures), as a strong and in no way emasculated masterpiece.
   
   A short story was appended to the essay. Rushdie calls it a fictionalized account of the auction of the ruby slippers (a pair of which sold in 1970 for $15,000). It is much more than that. In near Vonnegut style, the story explores the less than desirable aura and implications of crazed fandom. The setting seems to be the future and the present; part macabre science fiction, part first person narrative description. It also appeared in Rushdie's 1994 short fiction collection "East-West." Like nowhere else, the best of both worlds collide in this tiny British Film Institute book. It showcases both Rushdie the essayist and Rushdie the storyteller. Those looking for a quick glimpse of one of today's most discussed authors may want to start here.



2. This is an excellent comprehensive on the MGM classic, The Wizard of Oz. Rushdie is able to go into the innate symbolism of the film without becoming overly-sentimental or dry. He relates his own story growing up in the 1940's when the film first toured, and how it affected people during the war time. He then goes into the approaches to how the film was directed, the transitions from black and white to color, the personalities behind the actors and how it is the film remains irreplaceable to this day. This is a great book to pass on to a friend in the hospital, to cheer them up, or give to someone for a birthday. If you are a film-buff or collector of Oz, you will want a copy of this book. Pages are smooth and shiny, loaded with photos.



3. I really enjoyed this book. I had to read it for a film analysis and aesthetics class, along with many other BFI books, and it was my favorite one. I would have read it even if I weren't in the class -- Rushdie offers a personal take on a classic movie, and his reading (one that says youth is constantly looking for a technicolor world far away from their grounding, drab home life) is one easily relatable. I recommend it to any fan of Rushdie's, The Wizard of Oz and/or film.



4. One of the first long pieces Salman Rushdie wrote after the fatwa issued against him by the Ayatollah Khomeini, this charming little 1992 study of THE WIZARD OF OZ is one of their most charming in the BFI catalogue, and tells us perhaps more about the workings of one of the most important living novelists (himself a kind of wizard exiled from home) as it does about the 1939 MGM classic. The monograph consists of two halves: an extended essay on THE WIZARD OF OZ itself, and Rushdie's by-now famous short story "At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers," a fantasia on the famous early 70s purchase of one of the many pairs of slippers crafted for the film for what was then the unbelievable price of $15,000. The essay on the film brings up all kinds of intriguing departure points for Rushdie: he emphasizes its importance to his own imaginative work (the depiction of the Widow in MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN, he now realizes, owes much to the unforgettable appearance of Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West), offers surprising analyses of the film's treatments of exile and return, and compares it to the musicals of Bollywood. The essay disappoints only by being too short: you wish it would go on longer and tell you even more.



5. A great book for Rushdie -- one can feel the limitations perhaps set by the editors on him -- usually Rushdie runs on, but here all of his insight and enthusiasm is pared down into an economical essay one can enjoy in less than an afternoon. Oh, it's a wonderful book on the Wizard movie, too.

   Rushdie, as outsider/insider, helps one return to the joy of first seeing the movie; he also provides some of the more delicious gossip and facts about this movie -- unlikely as I am to ever read a full book the film, Rushdie captures surely some of its best behind-the-scenes stories (yes: midgets, sweating, original actors, and the slippers).

   This book is a great read: the author is able to remind us how so many good elements (the visual storytelling, Garland's voice, the lyrics, the political incorrectness) bleed together into this wonderful movie.

No comments about Stage Management (8th Edition).

2 comments about Dancing Longer, Dancing Stronger: A Dancer's Guide to Improving Technique and Preventing Injury.

1. This book is the most comprehensive guide to the physiology of dancing. It answers important questions about what is normal and what can cause problems. It also deals with correcting technique problems and preventing injuries by proper strengthening exercises. It covers the entire body from head to toe. In my opinion every dance teacher should read this book so they can responsibly develop young dancers. This book should be reprinted --- anyone who dances should read it and keep it handy as a valuable resource.



2. Dancing Longer, Dancing Stronger is for anyone who desires to understand their body and how to make it work more effectively. Along with detailed anatomical descriptions of all the bones and muscles in the body and how they interact, are exercises for both strengthening and lengthening each muscle set. You don't have devote a fortune in expensive equipment or a large amount of time doing repetive, boring movement. Suggestions in the Question and Answer sections help you define your structural weaknesses and suggest exercises within the program for overcoming them. Plus you never have to count past 8! Each exercise is done to one of four 8 count rhythms with most exercises being either 4 or 8 reptitions each. As a figure skater, this book has provided me with the best off-ice training I've found to date. Even my coach wants a copy!

2 comments about Telling Tales and Other New One-Act Plays.

1. 
   I used "Telling Tales" for a drama class and almost all of the plays were well-received and generated good discussions. The book had a good blend of famous playwrights and unknowns, comedies and dramas, and short plays and lengthier ones. My favorie plays were Terrence McNally's "Andre's Mother" and Richard Greenberg's "The Author's Voice." I wish editor Mark Lane would put out a second volume of one-act plays.



2. This compilation was very interesting. It lacked a little in the plays with many characters. If you are looking for a book of one acts to use for directing experience or for intermediate acting experience, then I highly recomend this book.

No comments about Douglas Fairbanks.

5 comments about Musical!: A Grand Tour.

1. ... it does contain some interesting material in amongst the dross; the problem is finding that needle in the strewn hay. Clearly Flinn loves the theater and obviously has done a lot of reading about the subject. Unfortunately, he included just about everything he had read about musicals in such helterskelter fashion that I found myself wanting to take out a blue pencil to tighten his prose and impose some organization on his material. There are factual errors, contradictions among his own opinions and plain illiteracies (e.g., 'wile away their time', 'both as dancer, choreographer and writer'). He goes on and on about the brilliance of Michael Bennett and how 'Chorus Line' pretty much is the end of the Broadway era, and then we note that he was a dancer in a Las Vegas company of 'Chorus Line.' He damns Sondheim with faint praise. He does lambaste the dumbed-down musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, which I applaud heartily. There were some pictures of original casts and productions but often we were led to believe a picture is of the original production when it is obvious that it is of a revival.
   
   I could not recommend this book as a basic text about popular musical theater.
   
   Scott Morrison



2. I found this book to be much more interesting than other histories out there on Musical Theatre. There are some errors, and I disagree with the idea that the American Musical ended with Chorus Line, but all in all I found the book to be very entertaining.



3. The introductory chapter on the history of musical theatre from ancient Greece to the 20th century is outstanding. I've never read any account that was better or more thorough. Unfortunately, that's the only strong part of the book. The rest of it is dull to read and contains many factual errors. Still, I'd recommend borrowing it from the library just to read the intro.



4. This book feels more like a collection of unrelated magazine articles than a book. A lot of the information is repeated (Funny Girl & Gypsy had the best overtures, pit bands are good, etc) and especially towards the end, the author goes from historian to strident critic.



5. Denny Martin Flinn obviously has a great interest and love of musicals. I applaud this facet of his personality. Unfortunately my minor contribution to the genre has aroused nothing but his ire. Should I defend myself? Would it not be better to pretend I never saw his work?

   Well, as he has based his attack on little more than 2 songs from one of my more successful efforts, a show about an Argentine lady called Evita, I feel I can speak out, albeit modestly. I shall refrain from using words he used about me like "drivel" and "illiterate" that clouded Denny's perspective. After all, he may hit it big one day (his writing shows great promise) and I would then be sorry I had offended him.

   "Buenos Aires", the song that particularly upset him, is sung in the show by a fairly uneducated working-class lass of 16. I therefore felt that too sophisticated a lyric would not match her strident and unsubtle views of life. Eva Peron singing "You're The Top" would not be appropriate. DMF asserts (quite rightly) that someone using the word "coming" in a lyric should be aware of its other meaning - I agree, but in "Buenos Aires" the sexual interpretation of that word was the principal interpretation and the key to the song. DMF spotted this but thought I hadn't!

   Also I am misquoted: it's "shoot" not "shout me up with your blood..."

   To be accused of not advancing the plot with my lyrics is a little unfair as there is no book in any of my shows. Therefore the lyrics are the book, and the plot. In fact I even won a Tony for the book of Evita! I said when I accepted the award that it was a bit ridiculous for me to win as there was no book as such, but reflected afterwards that the plot, told entirely thru sung words, must have qualified me.

   Evita may be dire in DMF's opinion, but the terrible songs certainly advance the plot.

   He also has a go about Christian Dior and Lauren Bacall references in "Rainbow High" having nothing to do with Argentina "just after World War II". Well, yes and no. Both Dior's New Look and the height of Bacall's fame ("The Big Sleep") took place in 1947, when Eva was desperate to make her mark on the world stage. Reference to two world-wide popular icons would have been quite natural to a wildly ambitious woman in the presence of her private dressers and promoters.

   Anyway, I am suitably chastised as a "hackmeister" and shall avoid DMF at parties. Those who don't hate everything I've done might like to check out the following five attempts at a good lyric which I feel fairly happy with:

   I Don't Know How To Love Him, One Night In Bangkok, Pity The Child, High Flying Adored, Circle Of Life.

   There are a few others knocking around and a few singers from Elvis to Elton to Barbra to Elaine have had a go so they're not too hard to find.

   I warmly recommend this book to all but Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber fans.

   Tim Rice Aug 2 1998

No comments about Of the Presence of the Body: Essays on dance and Performance Theory.