Sondheim & Lloyd-Webber: The New Musical (The Great Songwriters)

Rating:
Summary: Irresponsible Research
Review: Citron's book is an embarrassment to any serious student of musical theater. Many of Citron's facts are erroneous (beginning with Lloyd Webber's last name which is NOT hyphenated, but appears hyphenated in every instance throughout this book). His approach to this material is very condescending. For example, he implies that A Little Night Music and Passion only won Tony Awards because there were no other decent shows that opened those years, thereby dismissing other good shows and offering backhanded compliments to Sondheim. Rumors are that the Really Useful Group is extremely embarrassed by the Lloyd Webber sections. Wait for the forthcoming Yale series on Broadway composers.

Rating:
Summary: Terrible and embarrassing
Review: What a terrible book this is. As with Citron's other books, this is LOADED with factual errors and misunderstandings of the shows he discusses. The first big clue is that he misspells Andrew Lloyd Webber's name throughout the entire book -- where were his editors? And he says that the period between the 1920s and 1960s was "a time when plot was secondary" in musicals. Oh really? Like in Carousel, West Side Story, Show Boat, Pal Joey, South Pacific, My Fair Lady, Camelot, Gypsy, The King and I...? I feel sorry for anyone who wastes their money on this the way I did. Stay away from books by this guy -- there are so many GOOD books on muiscal theatre out there...