It Happened on Broadway: An Oral History of the Great White Way Hardcover – 1 Nov. 1998

Introduction Who's Who in the Cast iv I Broadway Calling 1 Breaking in stories by Carol Channing, Jerry Herman, Betty Buckley, Manny Azenberg, Betty Comden & Adolph Green, Al Hirschfeld, Richard Kiley, Leslie Uggams, Louise Lasser, Charles Durning, Michel Bell, Patricia Neal, Cy Coleman, Judy Kaye, and Jerry Zaks. II The Waterfall and the Camel Were Still There 37 Broadway in the post war years when theater was the Queen of Battle and the musical held center stage; when opening night was black tie and standing room was 55 cents; when opening night critics rushed to meet the next morning's editions, and press agents plied their plugs to a dozen dailies; when Hanson's Drug Store, Sardi's, Patsy's, Lindy's, and the Horn and Hardart on 46th were regular Broadway hangouts. The theater was cooking, and you were there. III It Was an Exciting Time to Be in the Theater 53 Robert Whitehead does Medea - first with Judith Anderson and then with Zoe Caldwell; the story of the Theater Guild from Eugene O'Neill and Bernard Shaw to William Inge and Sean O'Casey. Celeste Holm auditions for Lynn Fontanne and ends up starring with Gene Kelly in The Time of Your Life; the last weeks of Clifford Odets. IV That Sense of Truth 67 Remembering Tennessee William; performing with Brando in Streetcar; first encounters with Death of a Salesman; Broadway copes with the blacklist; the ground-breaking impact of A Raisin in the Sun; the Kaufman and Hart collaboration - it was like a marriage without sex. V Something Wonderful 92 American musical theater - how Irving Berlin picked up the moods of the country; when Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II got together; the big breakthrough of Oklahoma! and the blockbuster R & H shows that followed; Rodgers without Hammerstein. VI We Were the Essence of New York 119 Where's Charley?, Guys and Dolls, How to Succeed and the rest - Cy Feuer muses about the fabulous Feuer and Martin shows; memories of Ray Bolger, Frank Loesser, Abe Burrows, Sam Levene, Vivian Blaine, Gwen Verdon, and Bobby Morse. Cy Feuer and Ernie Martin -- they were Damon Runyon characters themselves. VII Look, Look, Look Who's Dancin' Now 139 Dance tells the story - from Agnes de Mille and Jerome Robbins to Gregory Hines and Savion Glover; Gwen Verdon on Bob Fosse; Marge Champion on Gower Champion; Donna McKechnie on Michael Bennett; Chicago - a show ahead of its time; what A Chorus Line really meant. VIII You Never Can Tell 170 Broadway as crapshoot - sure-fire plays that were flops and unlikely plays that were hits: why nobody expected much of Finain's Rainbow; when Kitty and Moss Hart first heard the score of My Fair Lady after several directors had turned it down; how Chita Rivera and Dick Van Dyke almost weren't in Bye Bye Birdie; why Man of La Mancha was "doomed to success;" why everyone discounted 1776; how La Cage aux Folles was a hit that closed too soon; why the revivial of Inherit the Wind closed the week after it received two Tony nominations.

IX The X Factor 210 That ineffable quality that makes certain performers unique - encounters with Mary Martin, Carol Channing, Ethel Merman, Barbra Streisand, Sammy Davis, Jr., Tallulah Bankhead, Ethel Waters, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, Zero Mostel, Eddie Cantor, Bert Lahr, et al. X That's the Craft 232 Backstage lessons and lore - inside stories from costume and lighting designers; Linda Lavin on Neil Simon and Len Cariou on Stephen Sondheim; the Broadway tradition of passing advice from generation to generation; the view from the orchestra pit; auditions and casting; Hal Prince tells the story of Evita in a two- minute number with a revolving door; George Abbott was "Misterabbotsir;" why on stage, nothing is as important as the truth. XI The Perpetual Invalid 260 Ruminations: Losses and gains, new kinds of producers, different kinds of audiences, sung-through musicals, not-for-profit theater, and when all is said and done, the place where love of theater is created. Broadway -- the metaphor for theater in New York. Curtain Call