Rating: 
Summary: Take It With a Grain of Salt
Review: This could have been a terrific book rather than a merely entertaining one. Unfortunately, Ostrow's biases for and against the various individuals with whom he's worked are so out of control, his observations and judgments cannot be trusted. Whether he's relentlessly bashing Barbara Harris or inexplicably waxing rhapsodic over a pleasant though hardly memorable melody by Strouse & Adams, one gets the feeling that Ostrow is more interested in exorcising a personal agenda rather than providing an accurate glimpse into an era of which he was such an integral part. Which is a true shame, since he was involved in some of the most significant and groundbreaking musicals of Broadway's Golden Age.
Rating:
Summary: Take It With a Grain of Salt
Review: This could have been a terrific book rather than a merely entertaining one. Unfortunately, Ostrow's biases for and against the various individuals with whom he's worked are so out of control, his observations and judgments cannot be trusted. Whether he's relentlessly bashing Barbara Harris or inexplicably waxing rhapsodic over a pleasant though hardly memorable melody by Strouse & Adams, one gets the feeling that Ostrow is more interested in exorcising a personal agenda rather than providing an accurate glimpse into an era of which he was such an integral part. Which is a true shame, since he was involved in some of the most significant and groundbreaking musicals of Broadway's Golden Age.
Rating: 
Summary: Publisher Weekly review of A Producer's Broadway Journey
Review: A From the first run of Guys and Dolls in 1950 to the recent debut ofRent, Stuart Ostrow, a protege of the great composer-lyricist Frank Loesser, has been personally involved in many of the major Broadway productions of our time. The steadily growing number of fans of the Great White Way will delight in his reminiscences about the shows that have shaped musical theater. Readers of A Producer''s Broadway Journey will certainly be entertained by Ostrow''s behind-the-scenes anecdotes of Bob Fosse, Barbra Streisand, Betty Buckley, Cole Porter, Lerner and Loewe, Hal Prince, Ethel Merman, and many other legends encountered in his accomplished career. But in addition to the tales of re-writes, stand-ins, near-disasters, and moments of theatrical magic, the author also provides a unique historical perspective on almost half a century of the musical. ...Here, Ostrow offers a celebration of the Broadway musical and "a meditation on what caused its decline," looking back over half a century of Broadway's best from 1950's Guys and Dolls all the way to Rent. Ostrow has a penchant for brisk, tart sentences and pulls no punches, admitting that producing has entailed "a few bargains with the Angel of Death." ...Ostrow takes such delight in quoting his favorite lyrics that the small-type copyright list fills eight pages. Readers with their own Broadway recollections may wish a CD had been packaged along with this trove of tunes, dances and reminiscences. (July) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Rating: 
Summary: A poor publication of a brilliant work
Review: As an owner of this book and an actual student of Ostrow at the University of Houston, I have a particular insite to this piece. We covered the material in class and somehow the energy, excitement, and passion we got as students is missing in the printing. Ostrow is one of the great "thinkers and doers" of the theatrical world. Unfortunately, the book doesn't do justice to the passion Ostrow has for the art form. What this should have been was two books--a formal critical analysis of the genre and its history with a separate biography of his involvement and life story. Those are two books I would buy, read, re-read, and cherish. Is this one worthwhile? Yes. Better yet--beg, borrow, or steal to get to Houston to take his classes. Anyone serious about the future of theatre should be begging to be here. One of the lucky ones.
Rating: 
Summary: From Library Journal
Review: From Library Journal: With an insider's perspective and understanding, Ostrow provides capsule insights into over 50 Broadway musicals from 1950 to 1998. The majority of the book focuses on the first two decades, with only four pages devoted to the 1990s. Ostrow's Broadway production credits include Pippin and 1776; he is now a professor of theater at the University of Houston. He uses a folksy, intimate writing style in this brief, selective history of American musical theater on Broadway, lamenting the lack of new original American musicals, the over-reliance on revivals of former hits, and the steep costs of mounting a musical. This is a compact but comprehensive overview of the major musicals of the later 20th century. The sparseness of the coverage and the lack of an index, though, make it a book to be read for pleasure, not research. Buy for demand or specialized collections.--J. Sara Paulk, Coastal Plain Regional Lib., Tifton, GA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring, unnecessary, and poorly edited
Review: I was very disappointed in this book. This so-called "producer's journey" included many anecdotes about shows with which the author was not even involved! Misspellings of peoples names and incorrect facts abound. He barely covered 1776, a seminal show that he should have many stories about. Read Ethan Mordden if you want provocative insight on Broadway musicals.
Rating:
Summary: Boring, unnecessary, and poorly edited
Review: I was very disappointed in this book. This so-called "producer's journey" included many anecdotes about shows with which the author was not even involved! Misspellings of peoples names and incorrect facts abound. He barely covered 1776, a seminal show that he should have many stories about. Read Ethan Mordden if you want provocative insight on Broadway musicals.
Rating:
Summary: William Safire on A PRODUCER'S BROADWAY JOURNEY
Review: ON LANGUAGE BY WILLIAM SAFIRE The New York Times Magazine10/17/99 "I recall the 'Music Man' gypsy run-through,"writes Stuart Ostrow in his new book, "A Producer's Broadway Journey." He defines the phrase as "a private performance of a new musical attended by the cast members' family and friends on the last day of rehearsals before the out-of-town tryout." Run-through, or "hasty rehearsal," was coined by P.G. Wodehouse in his 1923 "Inimitable Jeeves." And gypsy was defined in the 1973 "Language of Show Biz" as "a chorus member in a musical," specifically a dancer. But gypsy run-through was a new one to me, so I called Professor Ostrow at the University of Houston. I knew the origin of gypsy - Egyptian" - but was gypsy dancing the metaphoric source of calling members of a chorus line gypsies? No. "Bob Fosse once told me," Ostrow said, "that dancers are the best soldiers. You tell them to jump into the orchestra pit and they ask only, 'How many counts?' We call dancers gypsies because gypsies are known for always moving from place to place - and a dancer has to be constantly on the move." Real Gypsies rightly resent the use of the verb to gyp as an ethnic slur, but mobility is no derogation, and I (myself!) wish I had a dancing relative to invite me to a gypsy run-through.
Rating:
Summary: Present at the creation.
Review: Other than jazz, musicals are the only indigenous American art form and precious little has been written cogently about it by a practitioner. Since there are dozens of critical theatre collections written by lofty academics, I decided to write an informal standard of judgment according to my 38 years of professional experience, and call it: A Producer's Broadway Journey . These particular 63 shows, covering five decades and approximately 500 musicals doubtless reflects some accidents of my personal taste, nevertheless they, arguably, represent the best of the last 49 years of the Broadway Musical theatre. There are personal references and anecdotes; some tragic, and comic, or merely human, and are included as evidence of my journey, and in an effort to illuminate the character and ambitions of those I met along the way. It is also a subjective evaluation of those tangible and intangible essentials which make a musical fly, or remain earthbound. Once upon a time in America there was no nylon, silicon chip, laser, cellular phone, color television, modern gene technology, fiber optics, and other breakthroughs that eventually created new industries, which in turn helped to expand the national economy at a rapid pace. The cornucopia of breakthrough technologies that came during and after World War II was accompanied by equally new creative insights in the world of musical theatre: Oklahoma!, Lady In The Dark, Annie Get Your Gun, Kiss Me Kate, Guys And Dolls, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, The Music Man, Fiddler On The Roof, 1776, and A Chorus Line, revolutionized the way we told stories by way of song and dance. Rodgers & Hammerstein, Kurt Weill, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Frank Loesser, Lerner & Loewe, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Bock & Harnick, were the progenitors of this abundance but thirty years later we are still squeezing musicals from that aging field. We are eating our seed corn. Stuart Ostrow 31 May 1999
Rating:
Summary: An unilluminating retread of other's ideas about musicals.
Review: There are memoirs of the theater like Moss Hart's and Josh Logan's, and then there are, more typically, self-congratulatory and workman-like memoirs, like this one. All you need to know about his book is that Stuart Ostrow is responsible for the career of Stephen Schwartz, and deathless cultural artifacts such as "Pippin." The ideas about what makes a musical succeed or fail, and about the reasons for the decline of the musical, are all retreads, lacking in insight or interest. Also, to get an idea of the ponderous vanity of the writing, check out the author's photo: Rodin's Thinker, coming to grips with The Tough Questions About Theater in the New Millenium. If that doesn't ward you off, be advised that he uses the word "eleeomosynary," and if that doesn't do it, don't say I didn't warn you. If you've got money to spare, read Moss Hart or Josh Logan--books with life, drama, humor.
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