bookshelf

BROADWAY BABYLON

Name: BROADWAY BABYLON
Author: Boze Hadleigh
ISBN: 978-0-8230-8830-0

GLAMOUR, GLITZ, AND GOSSIP ON THE GREAT WHITE WAY

by Boze Hadleigh ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2007

Useful for hosts looking for party lines, but no match for Ethan Mordden’s All That Glittered: The Golden Age of Drama on...

bookshelf

The fabulous invalid (Broadway) is also, apparently, the horny invalid.

The curtain is barely up on this history of the Great White Way when Hadleigh (Celebrity Diss and Tell, 2005, etc.) notes that actor-director-choreographer Bob Fosse was sexually insatiable. Hadleigh puts a sexual spin on the adage that you can’t tell the players without a scorecard by homing in on who slept with whom and who was/is bi-, gay or straight. As to how Topic A shaped what happens onstage, Hadleigh suggests homophobia shaded the plays and reputation of Tennessee Williams and helped destroy playwright William Inge. But Hadleigh terms his history “selective…and non-chronological,” its aim to entertain. So his history soon heads to diverting topics such as dueling divas Mary Martin and Carol Channing and the history of Gypsy, punctuated by frequent blasts from Ethel Merman. But even the most devoted theater buffs will wonder if Lucille Ball’s Broadway flop Wildcat deserves an entire chapter, especially since much of what turns up has already turned up elsewhere. Sources of specific stories remain unclear. Many anecdotes come from books Hadleigh cites in an extensive bibliography and, apparently, from the showbiz scribe’s own interviews. Some reported events sound suspiciously like stunts devised by desperate press agents. One such tale finds Tommy Tune coming up from the audience to dance with Josephine Baker onstage at the Palace Theater. (Tune claims the moment effectively ended his imminent film career.) Hadleigh builds entire chapters on just quotes, scattering them one after the other like ticket stubs in the West Forties. Many of these quips have been making the rounds of parties for years. The final two chapter titles, “Rumors” and “Broadway Babble On,” sum up the effort.

Useful for hosts looking for party lines, but no match for Ethan Mordden’s All That Glittered: The Golden Age of Drama on Broadway, 1919-1959 (2007).

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007

ISBN: 978-0-8230-8830-0

Page Count: 352

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2007

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

bookshelf

NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

bookshelf

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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

bookshelf

TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

bookshelf

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.