Warning: Don't even think about buying this book unless you are willing to
support a fairly inexpensive habit for years! Once you've got this, the
first in what is expected to be an annual tradition, you will want to keep
your collection up to date and be forced to buy each year's edition in order
to keep the set current. Oh, but it will be fun being able to skim through
these entries each year to recall what the real world of Broadway was like
at any given time. The focus is on the people who inhabit that world - but
not just the people with their names on the marquee and not even just the
people in the playbill many theater lovers collect for each show they
attend. From wardrobe laundress to spotlight operator and box office staff
to stars, this is a glimpse into what the year between June 1, 2004 and May
31, 2005 (the generally accepted dates for a Broadway season) held for them all. |
Contents: Patterned on a school yearbook,
this picture-filled memory book has class portraits, individual "head
shots," statistics, and off-beat peculiarities for each of the sixty-seven
shows that played on Broadway at any time during the 2004-05 season, as well
as picture layouts for special events and even a section with pictures of
the people who worked in the offices of the major theater owning companies,
unions, professional organizations, press offices and even the TKTS booth.
Each show had one or more "yearbook correspondents" responsible for
collecting the material for the show - for instance, Beth Fowler who played
Peter Allen's mother in The Boy from Oz.
Avenue Q had the
entire cast act as "correspondents" while Kim Vernace, the
Production Stage Manager at Movin' Out
handled the duties for her show. They and their colleagues provided the kind
of semi-sophomoric tidbits that mark many a high school yearbook: inside
jokes, favorite backstage activities, most memorable ad-libs or embarrassing
moments - even record number of cell phone rings during a performance. (700
Sundays' follow-spot operator counted 23 in one night.)
Many of the shows provided candid shots of
people you never get to know unless you are part of the theater family.
Brooklyn included John Blake, the doorman at what was then the Plymouth
Theatre (now it is the Schoenfeld). There are sections on special events
other than the shows themselves. Among these are the major awards (The Tony
and Theatre Hall of Fame, of course, but also Gypsy (as the singers and
dancers in Broadway choruses call themselves) of the Year and even the
Broadway Show Softball League).
The authors all worked under the direction of
Robert Viagas who founded Playbill Online as well as Theatre.Com, acts as
the host of Radio Playbill on Sirius Satellite Radio, and wrote or edited
such valuable volumes as The Backstage Guide to Broadway" Louis Botto's
At This Theatre and On the Line: The Creation of 'A Chorus Line'. He
knows his way around the Great White Way as well as anyone today, and his
contacts and knowledge make this a fun collection. (You can find his picture
on page ii.)
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