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Review
"This account makes an excellent companion to its immediate predecessor, Make Believe.... [Mordden's] analysis is always intelligent and well put.... A must for any fan or student of musical theater."--Kirkus Reviews
"This volume offers a rich compendium of hits and misses that kept theatergoers lining up at the box office during the decade many remember as bland white bread.... Brimming with opinions, reminiscences and anecdotes, the pleasure here comes from Mordden's jaundiced eye, sharp wit and passion for his subject. This is must for every theater lover."--Publishers Weekly
."..as a tightly focused discussion of Broadway during its last decade of growth, this isn't a bad little book."--Jack Helbig, Booklist
"Coming Up Roses may not be an exhaustive treatment of the 1950's musical, but it's canny and intensely readable."--Randy Hall, Star
"While well-researched and of interest to the scholar, this lively book is as entertaining as its subject and will be enjoyed by --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Product Description
The 1950s saw an explosion in the American musical theater. The Broadway show, catapulted into the limelight in the 20s and solidified during the 40s thanks to Rodgers and Hammerstein, now entered its most revolutionary phase, brashly redefining itself and forging a new kind of storytelling. In Coming Up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s, Ethan Mordden gives us a guided tour of this rich decade. With loving detail, Mordden highlights the shift in Broadway from shows that were mere star vehicles, showcasing a big-name talent, to the bolder stories, stuffed with character and atmosphere. During this period, subject matter became more intricate, even controversial, and plots more human and complex; Mordden demonstrates how, in response, musical conventions were polished, writing became more finely crafted, and dance became truly indispensable. Along the way we meet the key players: such greats as Ethel Merman, George Abbott, Jerome Robbins, Gwen Verdon, Bob Fosse, Stephen Sondheim, Frank Loesser, Cole Porter, Leonard Bernstein, and many others. We get the backstage scoop on why Guys and Dolls is so well-made, why West Side Story is so timeless, why The Kind and I and Gypsy pushed the envelope, and why no one ever talks about Ankles Aweigh. All this is peppered with a dash of industry gossip--the directorial struggles, last-minute script rewrites and cast replacements, the power of the poster listings--that made Broadway so nerve-wrackingly vibrant. This passionate and informed study illuminates a crucial period in American musical theater and shows us the origins of many of the musicals recently revived to huge success on Broadway.
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You hear it as soon as the overture starts: a fanfare of confidence, ingenuity, surprise. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
You hear it as soon as the overture starts: a fanfare of confidence, ingenuity, surprise. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Be Prepared to Buy a Lot of Original Cast Albums!
19 April 2001
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
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.
15 of 18 people found the following review helpful
An invaluable, readable and entertaining guide.
23 Feb 1999
Format:Hardcover
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
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
A Fascinating Study of Musical Theater
2 Dec 1998
Format:Hardcover
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.
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