Coming Up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s

I spent the entire summer reading through all of Mordden's "decade by decade" books. It felt like I was listening to someone who was on the spot for every production, which seems logical until you realize that Mordden would have to be around a hundred to have been present at each opening night. The author combines an abiding love of the art form and a deep sense of scholarship with amusing and occasionally bitchy stories about the personalities involved. If you read them in order, you have before you an exceptional chronicle of the rise and fall of musical theatre, an analysis of its structure and a passion for musicals that revitalized THIS drama teacher all over again! This particular volume was especially upbeat in that the 1950's saw musical theatre rise to the top of its form and popularity. I grew up listening to cast albums and Broadway songbooks sung by some of the greatest singers. Even so, I have uncovered so much new history here and uncovered many new show titles. (I even started buying some CDs of shows I had never heard - or heard of - before!) Mordden is anything but unbiased in his praise and putdowns: some true Broadway icons get smacked around a lot. (Watch out, George Abbott fans!) But he still provides a wonderful description of many shows, classic and now forgotten, from inception to reception. I'm very grateful to Mordden for providing the modern reading audience, as well as those of us in foreign climes (California) who never got to attend a Broadway opening night, with his rich and funny take on the history of musical theatre.

Written by an authority on the American musical, he has followed up with different decades on the Broadway stage. This rich decade of the Fifties now entered its most revolutionary phase of redefining itself and forging a new kind of musical storytelling. This great era contained a flurry of revivals in the early '50s and almost all of the top musicals were made into movies for those of us in smaller towns who could not go to New York City. In fact, the stars of the movies were more to our taste anyway. In 1951, PAINT YOUR WAGON and THE KING AND I had many lovely songs for us to sing in local talent shows or pantomime as need be. PAL JOEY was revived in 1952 from the 1940 version and went on to star Frank Sinatra in the movie, "Bewitched" was the best song. CAN CAN surfaced in 1953, as did Mary Martin in PETER PAN. OKLAHOMA! (some call the best musical of all -- had the most hits), based on 'Green Grow the Lilacs,' was on stage in 1955 as was DAMN YANKEES (from which the song '(You Gotta Have) Heart' came. In 1956, we discover Sammy Davis, Jr. as MR WONDERFUL, and Judy Holliday in BELLS ARE RINGING. MY FAIR LADY with Julie Andrews as Eliza made a big splash in 1956. WEST SIDE STORY was a big hit in 1957 with Carol Lawrence. In 1956, every radio station in America was playing the "My Fair Lady" record album. She later starred in the biggest musical of that time, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, and starred in the movie as well. She was the original Queen Guivenere in CAMELOT on Broadway. GYPSY was Ethel Merman's biggest success. Television was loaded with musical revues full of star talent, for free. Eddie Fisher's COKE TIME, led the way and one of the songs he sang so well, 'Fanny,' came from the Broadway play of the same name which starred Ezio Pinza. Other wonderful musicals from that decade include KISMET with Howard Keel and Vic Damone, THE PAJAMA GAME with John Raitt, THE MUSIC MAN, GUYS & DOLLS, FLOWER DRUM SONG, CAROUSEL, SOUTH PACIFIC, BRIGADOON, AND SHOWBOAT (revised from the '20s). Some previously unknown singers made their debuts during the Fifties, Harry Belafonte, Ethel Waters, Eartha Kitt, among others. CARMEN JONES was 'Aida' in Memphis, Tennessee, in the 1860s and THE GOLDEN APPLE was resetting 'Iliad and Odyssey' in America in the early 1900s about the Trojan War, and Helen was played by Kaye Ballard. "The musical play's dramatic possibilities not only led them to major work but encouraged them to revise the science of craftsmanship as they went along." Some talents in Broadway's history have been essentially musical play talents such as Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein, Agnes de Mille, and Hal Prince. Some have been musical comedy talents, like Lorenz Hart, George Abbott, Carol Channing, Harold Rome, Bob Merrill, and Gwen Verdon. Some moved freely between the two worlds, most specifically George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Robbins, and Alfred Drake. One was the essential musical comedy talent -- Bob Fosse. This was a gl

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.

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

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.