...revelatory and entertaining. Viertel combines a scholarly approach with a light touch that enables us to see anew familiar songs and musical theater moments we’d long taken for granted.
His close analysis of craft doubles nicely as an account of the American musical’s evolution over the past century. From Carousel to Hello, Dolly! to Hamilton, we see style and content changing dramatically, even as the tools for conveying new ideas and new musical idioms remain generally the same.
...a delightful, accessible guide to why your favorite productions work. It’s a little bit history, a little bit memoir, a little bit criticism and, for any theater fan, a whole lot of fun.
The Secret Life Of The American Musical is a book about musicals in the bluntest possible sense, so much so that the title is misleading. Those who pick it up looking for salacious stories of 'shomances' and scandal will be disappointed, as will those looking for a history of the form or an Act One-style memoir of author Jack Viertel’s long career in the theater...
