Showstoppers!: The Surprising Backstage Stories of Broadway's Most Remarkable Songs

by Gerald Nachman

Overview

Showstoppers! is all about Broadway musicals’ most memorable numbers—why they were so effective, how they were created, and why they still resonate. Gerald Nachman has interviewed dozens of iconic musical theater figures to get their inside stories for this book, including Patti LuPone, Chita Rivera, Marvin Hamlisch, Joel Grey, Edie Adams, John Kander, Jerry Herman, Sheldon Harnick, Tommy Tune, Harold Prince, Donna McKechnie, and Andrea McArdle, uncovering priceless previously untold anecdotes and details.  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781613731024
Publisher:	Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	11/01/2016
Pages:	408
Sales rank:	680,269
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Gerald Nachman has been writing about musicals for over fifty years. His reviews, columns, and profiles have been published in the New York Times, the New York Post,  GQ, Cosmopolitan, the New York Daily News, the San Francisco Chronicle, Esquire, the San Jose Mercury News, and Theater Week. He is the author of six books, including Seriously Funny, Raised on Radio, and Right Here on Our Stage Tonight!: Ed Sullivan’s America.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Tuning Up xi

Part I Just for Openers 1

Guys and Dolls: "Fugue for Tinhorns" 3

The Music Man: "Rock Island" 5

Gypsy: "Some People" 11

Mame: "It's Today" 14

Cabaret: "Willkommen" 16

Chicago: "All That Jazz" 27

Part II They Stopped the Show 33

Garrick Gaieties: "Manhattan," "Mountain Greenery" 34

A Connecticut Yankee: "Thou Swell," "To Keep My Love Alive" 40

Paris: "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" 45

Girl Crazy: "I Got Rhythm" 48

Anything Goes: "You're the Top" 52

Babes in Arms: "Johnny One-Note," "I Wish I Were in Love Again" 61

The Boys from Syracuse: "Sing for Your Supper" 65

Lady in the Dark: "Tchaikowsky (and Other Russians)" 73

Oklahoma!: "I Cain't Say No" 75

Annie Get Your Gun: "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun," "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly," "There's No Business Like Show Business," "An Old-Fashioned Wedding" 83

Kiss Me, Kate: "Brush Up Your Shakespeare," "Always True to You in My Fashion," "I Hate Men" 93

South Pacific: "There Is Nothin' Like a Dame," "Some Enchanted Evening" 101

Call Me Madam: "(You're Not Sick) You're Just in Love" 111

Guys and Dolls: "Adelaide's Lament" 115

The King and I: "Shall We Dance?" 122

Wonderful Town: "Ohio" 131

Damn Yankees: "Whatever Lola Wants," "Heart" 136

My Fair Lady: "The Rain in Spain," "Get Me to the Church on Time" 138

West Side Story: "America," "Gee, Officer Krupke" 149

The Music Man: "Ya Got Trouble " "Seventy-Six Trombones" 161

Gypsy: "Everything's Coming Up Roses," "Ya Gotta Get a Gimmick" "Rose's Turn" 173

Bye Bye Birdie: "Put on a Happy Face" 192

Hello, Dolly!: "Hello, Dolly!" 199

Funny Girl: "Don't Rain on My Parade," "People" 212

Fiddler on the Roof: "If I Were a Rich Man" 221

Sweet Charity: "Big Spender," "If My Friends Could See Me Now" 233

Mame: "If He Walked into My Life" 236

Company: "The Ladies Who Lunch," "You Could Drive a Person Crazy" 239

Follies: "Broadway Baby," "I'm Still Here" 254

A Little Night Musk: "Send in the Clowns" 262

A Chorus Line: "One," "What I Did for Love" 267

Chicago: "Razzle Dazzle," "We Both Reached for the Gun," "Mr. Cellophane" 278

Annie: "Tomorrow" 288

The Producers: "Springtime for Hitler" 300

Wicked: "Popular," "Defying Gravity" 306

Jersey Boys: "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" "Sherry" 315

Part III O Say Can You Hear-Broadway Anthems 321

Show Boat: "OF Man River" 322

Carousel: "You'll Never Walk Alone" 329

The Sound of Music: "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" 331

Man of La Mancha: "The Impossible Dream (The Quest)" 334

Evita: "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" 337

Cats: "Memory" 344

La Cage aux Folks: "I Am What I Am" 349

Les Misérahles: "I Dreamed a Dream" 352

The Phantom of the Opera: "The Music of the Night" 355

Acknowledgments 359

Permissions 361

Bibliography 364

Index 368

Editorial Reviews

"The fertile fields of musical theatre have been tilled so well and so often you might think all the gold nuggets have been plucked, published and repeated till they’re lore. Well, think again. Gerald Nachman is a determined, tenacious prospector in addition to being an engagingly witty showbiz historian. In his latest and liveliest tone, SHOWSTOPPERS!, he comes up with some new wrinkles in the old gypsy robe." —Playbill magazine  


“Showstoppers! is like a great Broadway season: hit after hit, with nary a flop in sight! Nachman employs the big numbers from the big shows as his entry point into the world of musical comedy, using the showstoppers to analyze how the great shows work and how the various elements, from the cast to the score to the script, come together. Whether you’re a hardcore Broadway buff or a stranger here yourself, you’ll find a lot to enjoy in this well-written, diligently researched volume.” —Will Friedwald,
author of Stardust Melodies: A Biography of 12 of America’s Most Popular Songs


“Gerald Nachman has the great good sense to let the creators of these brilliant theatrical moments speak for themselves, which gives us the feeling that we are really there at the birthing of the songs and dance numbers that have thrilled us all of our theatergoing lives. For that alone, Showstoppers! is a treasure trove of theatrical inspiration.”
—Jack Virtel, author of The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Classic Broadway Shows Are Built


“Wonderfully written and exciting to read.” —Martin Charnin, creator of Annie


“Whether you don’t know a lot about musical comedy or think you know it all, Gerald Nachman’s Showstoppers! has multiple insights, canny observations, and is a lot of fun!” —Ken Bloom, author of Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time


"[Nachman] knows these songs and these shows inside-out and has conducted tireless research and multiple interviews. Fans of show tunes will enjoy dipping in and out of these short, easy-to-read snapshots." —Booklist

From the Publisher

10/15/2016
In what has been a boffo year for Broadway musical bios and narratives (e.g., Some Enchanted Evenings; The Secret Life of the American Musical), veteran theater critic Nachman pens a valentine to the quintessential American musical set piece, the showstopper. In the over-the-top world of the musical the showstopper is simultaneously a literal and figurative trope for the transformative power of a Broadway song and Nachman dishes them up on a sterling Tiffany's platter: "If I Were a Rich Man," "Hello Dolly," "What I Did for Love," "Don't Cry For Me Argentina," "Some Enchanted Evening," and "Willkommen" (if you can't attach the shows to the songs, this book is not for you) are just a few of the 70-plus iconic songs in the American musical canon included. Each is placed within production context and examined for its theatrical mechanics and popularity. Random "Backstage Dish" features add inside information and the occasional leading actor interview (e.g., Bebe Neuwirth kibitzing about Bob Fosse and Chicago). VERDICT If you know that "Send in the Clowns" is Sondheim, not Judy Collins, and can sing along with those countless Glee videos on YouTube, then you're a member of the tribe for whom this title is intended.—Barry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TX

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