It Happened on Broadway: An Oral History of the Great White Way

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Summary: PLAYBILL ON LINE: LIVING, BREATHING THEATER HISTORY!!!
Review: "It Happened On Broadway" is nothing short of living, breathing theatre history. Carol Channing's first appearance on stage at a grammar school in San Francisco; Patricia Neal's subsistence jobs cutting pies and scooping ice cream while waiting for her career to bloom (which really didn't take all that long by today's standards); the advent of the Theatre Guild; Celeste Holm and John Raitt on creating the grand-daddy of musical theatre, Oklahoma; Kim Hunter on Marlon Brando; Donna McKechnie on Michael Bennett; Linda Lavin on Neil Simon and Len Cariou on Stephen Sondheim, it's all in there.

"It Happened On Broadway" is told by those who have spent the past 50 years in the trenches, the actors, designers, press agents, choreographers, directors, and even their offspring. With vintage photos, drawings, posters and Playbills the Frommer's provide us with a look at theatre history from a time when $1.50 would buy you a movie and six or eight vaudeville acts to the impact of the AIDS crisis on the theatre community to the vast corporate culture now responsible for many of today's Broadway shows. An invaluable and engrossing book for anyone interested in an insiders perspective on the business of the Great White Way.

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Summary: A HOME RUN OF A BOOK****SOUTH SHORE RECORD
Review: "Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer have penned their fourth oral history: IT HAPPENED ON BROADWAY. The Frommers are considered the quintessential word-of-mouth authors of modern-day America. In this book they take the reader from the dramatic successes of the years before and after World War II, through heralded rise of the book-musical in the 50s, the great dance musicals, up to the current trend of the long-running mega-hit. Lavishly illustrated with rare photographs, playbills, set designs and tons of hand-delivered memorabilia, the book ultimately finds itself standing alone as the only history of the Great White Way told by those who actually lived it. A narrative historical composite has been drawn with photos and interviews of actors, directors, producers, set designers, stage managers, publicists, composers, lyricists and playwrights (not to mention highlights by well known newspaper and radio critics). Among some of the high points are Kim Hunter's remembering her onstage mishap with Marlon Brando in the original production of "A Streetcar Named Desire." Donna McKechnie's discussion of "A Chorus Line," and her backstage relationship with its creator Michael Bennett, and the breaking-in stories of Richard Kiley, Leslie Uggams, Jerry Herman, Betty Buckley and Carol Channing."

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Summary: ==WONDERFUL==READ==stage directions magazine!
Review: a whiff of nostalgia

It Happened on Broadway is an oral history of the Great White Way. Edited by Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer, it reviews 50 years of Broadway theater through the words and memories of greats like Celeste Holm, one of the stars of the original Broadway production of Oklahoma!, Kim Hunter, who recalls her onstage mishaps with Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire and Donna McKechnie, the original Cassie in A Chorus Line. Also quoted are the children of theater legends Oscar Hammerstein, Richard Rodgers, Bert Lahr, Irving Berlin and Eddie Cantor. The quotes are strung together a bit deceptively, as if the speakers are talking with one another, which isn't the case. And there are occasional misspelled names and titles that indicate a lack of editorial oversight. If you can overlook this, it's a wonderful read.

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Summary: UNIQUE!!!!!!! ------Eperformer.com
Review: Actors and backstage personnel alike recall their experiences and their peers on Broadway in this unique book. Such luminaries as Carol Channing, Gwen Verdon, Patricia Neal, Richard Kiley share their memories in a book that spans more than six decades of Broadway history.

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Summary: UNIQUE! ----E Performer.com
Review: Actors and backstage personnel alike recall their experiences and their peers on Broadway in this unique book. Such luminaries as Carol Channing, Gwen Verdon, Patricia Neal, Richard Kiley share their memories in a book that spans more than six decades of Broadway history

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Summary: REVEALS MUCH ABOUT BROADWAY/ britishtheatre.guide
Review: By Peter Lathan - It Happened on Broadway is a collection of interviews with 107 Broadway luminaries, including Carol Channing, Betty Buckley, Joel Grey, John Kander, Fred Ebb, James Hammerstein (son of Oscar), Mary Rodgers (daughter of Richard) and Kitty Carlisle Hart (widow of Moss). It tells the story of Broadway from the point of view of those who were deeply involved in its development as the centre of American theatre. It takes us behind the public faces and into the private thoughts and feelings of the stars, writers, composers, directors, producers, designers, press agents, playwrights, and even the restauranteurs (Vincent Sardi Jr. is there, too). It tells about the great successes (and some of the spectacular flops). It reveals much about the great writers - Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Moss Hart, Irving Berlin, Cy Coleman - and the performers - the portrait of Carol Channing in her own words is stunning. And we see the great directors and choreographers - my own favourite, Bob Fosse, is talked about at length - through the eyes of those who worked with them. I thoroughly enjoyed it. What this book shows very clearly is the deep love of theatre, of live performance, which these Broadway luminaries share with the rest of us. In their words I could hear echoes of myself and all of my theatre friends.

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Summary: FASCINATING, intimate - - signed editions
Review: Here is a book filled with the light and magic of Broadway theater, told from the living memories of the people who created it. What made Carol Channing decide to go into the theater? What great musical did Moss Hart first hear in kindergarten? What positions did Neil Simon, Robert Redford, and Manny Azenberg play on Barefoot in the Park's softball team? These and hundreds more stories make It Happened on Broadway a fascinating, informative, and very intimate picture of the life of the theater.

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Summary: TELLS THE STORY OF BROADWAY - The Forward
Review: In "It Happened on Broadway," the latest book of oral history from the Frommers, the couple not only give the story of Broadway but discuss how it has overlapped with the story of Jews in America. The Frommers, are veterans of the Jewish American cultural scene, which they covered in their oral histories "It Happened in the Catskills," "It Happened in Brooklyn," and "Growing Up Jewish in America." Now they deal with the saga of the Great White Way in its glory years immediately following World War II. "As you read this book, you have the feeling that Jews, after so many years of being repressed and oppressed in Europe, came to America, where their children were free finally to do whatever they wanted in the world. and then the talent just came pouting out," Ms. Frommer said.

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Summary: DELIGHTFUL! TERRIFIC! JUST SWELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: It Happened on Broadway: An Oral History of the Great Whire Way by Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer. A husband and wife team of Professors in the Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies at Dartmouth College, the Frommers have gathered together the living memories cf over one hundred actors, directors, producers, lyricists, playwrights, critics, designers, publicists, and stage managers to create a volume filled with the light and magic of Broadway itself. These collected memories take us from the enduring dramatic successes of the years~ before and after World War II, through the golden age of the American musical, right up to today's megahits. It Happened on Broadway offers priceless recollections of Broadway hangouts, such as Sardi's and Lindy's; performing with Brando in "Streetcar," the collaborations of Kaufman and Hart and Rogers and Hammerstein; and countless encounters with the likes of Mary Martin, Carol Channing, Jerome Robbins, Tennessee Williams, and Steven Sondheim. There's enough theater lore here - from back stage to the orchestra pit - to entertain the most devoted Broadway aficionado.