Ape and Essence

Stephen Citron has written the bees-knees of musical theatre, in a unique, detailed yet highly entertaining and easy-to-read book. Sections are easily identified and will be a bible to composers, librettists, lyricists, directors and producers of musicals, or those wishing to enter this field. "The musical: from the inside out" explores every step of the creation process of a musical, from the first idea to the creation to the auditions to it's closing night.It's extremely fascinating and explores length, composition techniques, orchestration, writing a book, to the title and format and, best of all, includes real, often detailed quotes and explanations from creators such as Steven Sondheim to Hal Prince, Andrew Lloyd Webber - amongst many others.The bible of all bibles for musical theatre workers. Well done!

An excellent text for the neophyte wishing to try his hand at the creation of a musical or for the amateur (like me) who is curious to know exactly how a musical is made. Full of quotes from famous pros and always readable. Highly recommended.

I first read Ape and Essence in a single sitting about 1950. I was then 29 or 30 and so deeply impressed by the novel's power and its comment on the state of our world that I felt it was the end-all of literature and there was no need to read any more fiction. Indeed, my appetite for novels remained sated for more than a year. I read the novel again with its second edition a few years ago and was scarcely less impressed. This novel fully ranks with Brave New World and Point Counter Point, and deserves to be recognized as one of the best 100 novels of the 20th century.

I can't read this book (as I have a number of times) without thinking of it as the flip side to Brave New World. I still find myself wandering into the library, grabbing the book and thumbing through the pages for passages that inspire and depress me!

When I was given this book by a avid Huxley fan I did not know the mortifing power that the pages held. Huxley's vision of the future is not only amazing but enlighting of the terriable power of Nuclear War and the aftermath. If you have read 1984 by G. Orwell or Brave New World by Huxley you should pick this book up. At first if you are lost, keep reading and before you know it you will have finished the book. It is a page turner in every sence of the word.