Full of information and attitude—will appeal more to aficionados than to casual fans.
A veteran theater critic (Newark Star-Ledger) walks us through the Hall of Not-So-Much Fame, speculating why some musicals win Tonys and others lose.
The subtitle is accurate: Filichia is indeed “very opinionated.” Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Pipe Dream he calls “godawful,” and the 1980 film of Xanadu was “such a turd.” Still, the author’s tour is careful and well-researched. For many of the shows, he offers a summary of the plot—often running to several pages—and his knowledge of Broadway history is both wide and deep. He begins with a troubling decision: How did West Side Story not win Best Musical? And Gypsy? And Follies? Having raised the question, Filichia offers chapters that deal with the principal reasons for shows’ failures. Some, for example, are just too good—the cause of Sondheim’s suffering, he believes. Others are “lame ducks”: They closed before the voting. Leap of Faith had only 20 performances. Some losers, as he notes, eventually won by reaping fine profits—Grease, Pippin, Beauty and the Beast among them. Sometimes, it’s the producers who seem to annoy voters (David Merrick won far fewer times than one would think); sometimes, fortune does not favor a show. Dream Girls won performance awards but not Best Musical. Still others might have done better in other years (Into the Woods lost to Phantom), and some were apparently just too small for the voters’ show-time appetites—High Spirits and The Me Nobody Knows, for example. Filichia’s longest chapter deals with shows that were generally good but flawed in some serious way—e.g., Funny Girl, Coco, Over Here!, The Color Purple and Rock of Ages, “the latest in the parade of stupid musicals, meant for crowds that think musicals are innately moronic.”
Full of information and attitude—will appeal more to aficionados than to casual fans.Pub Date: May 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-250-01843-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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