Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #789958 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Customer Reviews

Very Helpful
I find this book to be a very useful source of information for our Community Theatre group. We recently tried to cast a show and AGAIN came up short in the singing men department. I hope to use this going forward to make more informed choices about potential musicals for our group.

Excellent if a Little Out of Date
This book is ideal for the community theater artistic director or school teacher who is looking for a musical to put on.

The title implies to me that here you will find instructions on how to stage the performance. Instead it's about selecting the play you might want to put on.

And it's description of some plays you might want to consider is very good. It gives you the story of what's happening, but far more information of a specialized nature that you need to know. For instance, how many performers, what kind of sets, costumes, props, special effects, etc. A very important detail given about the plays is where to go get rights. This can save you a lot of time.

I have only three complaints about the book. First it needs updating, there are a lot of new plays you might consider. Second, it needs a section on smaller plays. My stage needs plays with 6-8 people, few of the ones listed here are that small. Third, the book needs to be about three times as long, I'd like to see all the plays that are available in a format done like this.

Enjoyable reference
This useful book sets out to do for musicals what Theodore Shank's "500 Plays" does for the theater: provide plot synposes, production notes, and useful background for a wide variety of shows. It's aimed at theatre groups, but it's equally enjoyable as a reference guide to musicals for the general reader -- perhaps the best one of its type in existence.

For each show, the entry contains: the creators; background on its original run, including awards won; a plot outline; assets and liabilities; roles; dances; sets, costumes and props; instrumentation; marketing suggestions; production suggestions; resources (for example, videos of the show); and details of the rights.

The book was clearly a labour of love, and it shows sometimes in the inconsistent treatments of different shows. Some shows get a one-sentence plot summary, for others it runs to several paragraphs. However, by and large it's an excellent resource, with its crisp, no-nonsense assessments of assets and liabilities. It packs a lot of information into a very small space.