It Happened On Broadway gives the history of the Great White Way from WWII through the early 80s. The book is made up of stories from over one hundred theater veterans telling you about what went down – straight from the horses mouth. The book starts, just like a playbill would, with a Who’s Who in the Cast – that is – whose stories are included within the pages of the rest of the book.
There are so many truly wonderful stories throughout this book that I can’t decided what ones to highlight for this review. This must have been quite an undertaking by the authors, to put all these great chats with the performers together. I especially liked the chapter early on in the book where everyone talks a bit about what Broadway is to them.
If you are a fan of Broadway definitely check out this book – I’m not sure you’ll find a better one out there. So much history and detail and fun anecdotes!
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.
About the Book
In this deliciously revealing oral history of Broadway from World War II through the early 1980s, more than one hundred theater veterans—including Carol Channing, Hal Prince, Donna McKechnie, Hal Holbrook, Andrea McArdle, and Al Hirschfeld—deliver the behind-the-scenes story of the hits, the stars, the feuds, and the fiascoes. Along the way there are evocations of the great comedians and dramatic actors who had that indefinable magic that made them stand out above the rest. With verve, love, and passion, this book gives us the story of more than half a century of great theater—from the inside out.
Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer met as undergraduates at New York University. The coauthors of five critically acclaimed oral histories, they are cultural historians with a focus on New York City. They are also professors in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program at Dartmouth College. They live in Lyme, New Hampshire.