Broadway Babies Say Goodnight : Musicals Then and Now

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Summary: Brilliantly written treatise from a hopeless nostalgist....
Review: Broadway Babys Say Goodnight is among the best and most infuriating books on the musical theatre you'll ever read. Those who follow Steyn's columns in Spectator magazine, where he writes articles on American politics and film reviews, will know this is a man who is virtually incapable of writing a sentence devoid of arrogance, pomposity, self-indulgence and self-righteousness. Yet it kind of works. With so much journalistic writing hopelessly sanitised, Steyn's quirky prose grabs you and seldom let's you go - and in the end forces the reader to re-examine their own opinions. Steyn, a Canadian (not as is often quoted a Brit), is one of the few writers whose sheer strength of personality can make me read on in spite of myself.

The problem with Steyn's arts criticism (as in his political writing in my opinion) is that he is such a hopeless nostalgist. A yearning for the by-gone era of American innocence of Rodger's and Hammerstein permeates this book. Anything beyond is summarily dismissed. Rock musicals were decadent and worthless. Sondheim bastardised the musical, turning it from a popular conservative artform to a self-important mouthpiece for the liberal chique and Lloyd Webber is a junky profiteer of a decadent and tasteless age. You may agree or disagree with the above, but from Steyn's blinkered conservative (topped off with a degree of inverted snobbery)standpoint you really get the impression that he believes Oklahoma and Dorothy Field's lyrics were the pinnacle of artistic achievement in the twentieth century, and he doesn't try to find anything useful or constructive in what has happenned since, both in theatre and wider culture. What's most surprinsing is that pivotal post 1950s musicals such as WestSideStory and A Chorus Line are left largely unexamined, whilst we get pages on the genius of Rodgers and Hammerstein's banal "Oh What A Beautiful Mornin". Such cheerily vacuous sentiments are just what Steyn believes a good, wholesome society should be based on.

For me then the joy of reading this book is in a large part the joy of seeing your opinions challenged in the strongest way possible ( I enjoy this though I suspect Steyn doesn't). Its brilliantly written and well-argued, and much of it can't be disputed - yes, musicals have lost their cultural power, yes, popular songwriting has been de-based, yes, Sondheim ain't half as good as he used to be etc. But to read Steyn you'd think that late twentieth-century culture (both theatrical and wider) had produced nothing of value whatever. And that's just plain wrong.

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Summary: Inaccurate, nasty and mistakes snide comments for wit
Review: I took a chance in purchasing this book when looking for material about changes in conventions of musical theatre. By the time I read the first chapter I knew I had come across one of the most insightful view of musical theatre.

It discusses numerous productions (in brief) but in particular landmark productions such as Show Boat, Oklahoma!, West Side Story (and others) and a good discussion on that 'tricky' subject called Sondheim. What I appreiciated was that Steyn doesn't follow a chronological format, but Steyn rather discusses shows when relevant to the topic. The book is highly entertaining and humourous, filled with little bits of interesting trivia as well as plenty of useless trivia (which we all love) for those who already know everthing.

I would certainly recommend this as a light read for anyone with a love for muscials who want more than a ABC of what we already know. Steyn certainly has a lifetime of knowledge to share.

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Summary: Inaccurate, nasty and mistakes snide comments for wit
Review: In addition, it is extremely homophobic and reflects a very sour spirited authorial voice

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Summary: so much better around
Review: Mark Steyn in Broadway Babies Say Goodnight (Musicals Then and Now) has accomplished an unique objective. He has written a book that is meant to appeal to people whose veiws are strictly politically conservative, love musicals (particulary fond memories of older musicals that they are in fact too young to have even seen) and do not know any actual facts about the history of the genre so the author's glaring mistakes will not prove an annoyance. Even stranger is that he has found these people and, God bless them, they have the book they have always dreamed about. For anyone else, this can be a bit of a slog. It is funny (espcially if you like puns) in places but the arguments are so often backed up with mistakes as to be worthless. This book is not truly bad. It is just simply odd. If you like Mark Steyn (this book is more about him anyway) then enjoy. Othewise, it is worth a pass.

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Summary: Best review of Broadway in years
Review: The Great White Way is in trouble. It's condition is terminal but not serious, as the Russians say. Whatever you think of the causes for that, you will enjoy this book, if you love theatre. Mr. Steyn provides an excellent, if short history of Broadway, interspersed with lively criticism of the 'state of the stage'. Sondheim, in particular, receives some cutting thrusts. Reading it, I alternatively wanted to shout in Mr. Steyn's face and shake him by the hand. I laughed, I cried, I threw the book across the room at least three times, but I couldn't put it down.

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Summary: A Sad But True Story
Review: The writer below lists several recent musicals as examples of why Steyn is wrong about the state of the musical today: RAGTIME, FLOYD COLLINS, etc. Of course, he unwittingly proves Steyn's point. These are preachy, self-important musicals, drunk with the delusion that they must be profound because they play around with Important Themes. The musical as the great form of entertainment it was--the form that, at its best, raises entertainment to the level of art--is gone. Who writes musical *comedy* on Broadway today? Dance has become almost irrelevant (except in revues), and no one except Sondheim bothers to write witty lyrics in the tradition of Porter or Hart. Now, you can say that this is all "progress." It isn't, though. It's a step backward. The problem with the musical isn't that it went forward, but that it abandoned its roots. Steyn isn't a perfect writer, but he traces the process of this abandonment, and will leave anyone who loves musicals--as opposed to pretentious pageants--feeling justifiably depressed.

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Summary: A history of Broadway as told by one who love's it
Review: This is one of those gem of a books that come along every once in a while. After the first reading I started all over again. The writing is that good. The book is laid out like a Broadway show, dividing itself into a two act play with scenes. In Act I, Mr. Steyn traces the evolution of the musical from its beginnings in Vienna through its importation to the America by European trained musicians to its eventual takeover and refinement by American composers. We see the beautiful progression from the dance hall Ziegfeld folly to organic synthesis of music and dialog in such wonderful works of art as Show Boat and Fiddler on the Roof. Act II is the decline and fall of this wonderful artform as it reverts back to its operatic beginnings with such good shows like A Chorus Line and Chicago to abominations like Cats and Starlight Express.

This is an author who loves his subject. His first hand interviews with some of the great luminaries of the Broadway theater like Jules Styne, George Abbott, and Cy Coleman bring the backstage evolution of the musical to life. His marvelous command of the English language make the subject matter even more interesting.

The other reviewers who suggest "homophobia" on Steyn's part are way off base. It is his forthright acknowledgement of gay accomplishment in the theater along with the terrible scourge of AIDS that has had a significant impact on the musical because its greatest modern practitioners are dying off without passing on their wisdom. Of what relevance is the fact that Steyn is a political conservative or a sometime writer for the Wall Street Journal have anything to do with the subject of Broadway musicals?

Enjoy this book for what it is; a glorious paean to a great art form.

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Summary: What good there is undermined by bigotry
Review: Though Mr. Steyn does have strong opinions and some good observations, his judgements are tainted by an anti-gay bias (he titles one chapter "The Fags", and it's not meant affectionately). His readings of stories such as the reaction of Lorenz Hart upon hearing "Oklahoma" in a blackout could have been better informed by further research, and he repeats Lerner's silly comment about Lorenz Hart being to short to be heterosexual so he had to turn to men. The book is also dated in many respects including the waning influence of British Operettas and the public's acceptance of Stephen Sondheim. Rather than this book I would reccommend anything by Ethan Mordden or Martin Gottfried.