Bøger af Jack Viertel

A show business romance crossing 7000 miles and 70 years, Broadway Melody lands securely in the confines of Times Square and the Theater District, as a crackerjack trumpet player and a blue-collar spotlight operator vie for the love of an aspiring ingenue who holds them both in thrall for their entire lifetimes. Filled with theater lore and history, vivid characters both real and imagined, and a great number of songs in its heart, this novel delivers the ultimate valentine to Broadway then and now. For more than a century the Broadway theater has been a landing strip for characters on the run - from their upbringing, from the unwelcoming communities they grew up in, even from their parents. So it seems for the obsessively gifted trumpet player Ike Harris, who leaves behind a most peculiar childhood and a chaotic life on the road for the orchestra pit of the Winter Garden Theater. There, in the dark confines beneath the stage he falls hopelessly in love with a young ingenue in a catastrophic flop that leaves all concerned searching for happier outcomes. All, that is, except for Vincent Donnelly, who has been training his number two follow spot on the very same young performer - Aurora Shelton - and wishing he could fall through its lighted beam and land securely against her heart. Vincent, it first appears, gets what he wants. Or perhaps not. Broadway Melody traces three lives through the early ambitions and unlikely pathways that landed all of them in the same place at the same time - 1960s Broadway. Woven through its pages are the hits and flops, the making and breaking of careers, the destruction of three historic theater buildings, the plague of AIDS, the machinations of union bosses and producers, and, of course, the world outside this insular community - the audience that looks to Broadway for emotional thrills, for enlightenment, and for pure entertainment. Laced with humor and sadness, portraits of historical characters from The Street and a long view of the rise, fall and revival of Times Square itself, Broadway Melody stitches three lives - and three hearts - into the fabric of an endlessly compelling tale of the American theater.

A New York Times BestsellerFor almost a century, Americans have been losing their hearts and losing their minds in an insatiable love affair with the American musical. It often begins in childhood in a darkened theater, grows into something more serious for high school actors, and reaches its passionate zenith when it comes time for love, marriage, and children, who will start the cycle all over again. Americans love musicals. Americans invented musicals. Americans perfected musicals. But what, exactly, is a musical?In The Secret Life of the American Musical, Jack Viertel takes them apart, puts them back together, sings their praises, marvels at their unflagging inventiveness, and occasionally despairs over their more embarrassing shortcomings. In the process, he invites us to fall in love all over again by showing us how musicals happen, what makes them work, how they captivate audiences, and how one landmark show leads to the next-by design or by accident, by emulation or by rebellion-from Oklahoma! to Hamilton and onward.Structured like a musical, The Secret Life of the American Musical begins with an overture and concludes with a curtain call, with stops in between for "I Want" songs, "conditional" love songs, production numbers, star turns, and finales. The ultimate insider, Viertel has spent three decades on Broadway, working on dozens of shows old and new as a conceiver, producer, dramaturg, and general creative force; he has his own unique way of looking at the process and at the people who collaborate to make musicals a reality. He shows us patterns in the architecture of classic shows and charts the inevitable evolution that has taken place in musical theater as America itself has evolved socially and politically. The Secret Life of the American Musical makes you feel as though you've been there in the rehearsal room, in the front row of the theater, and in the working offices of theater owners and producers as they pursue their own love affair with that rare and elusive beast-the Broadway hit.