Nothing Like a Dame: Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater Author: Visit Amazon's Eddie Shapiro Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0199941203 | Format: PDF
Nothing Like a Dame: Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater Description
Review
"A fascinating and remarkably authentic collection of conversations with theatre aristocracy." --John Kander
"This book is an encyclopedia of modern musical theatre via a series of tender meetings between a diehard fan and his idols. Because of Eddie Shapiro's utter guilelessness, these women open up and reveal more than they ever have before, and we get to be the third guest at each encounter." --Alan Cumming
"Eddie Shapiro has woven together an insightful, inspiring and truly revelatory collection of interviews with these legends of musical theatre. It is an honor to hear personal stories from these incredible women on their creative process and the shows they have graced." --Daryl Roth
"For those who are interested in knowing about the inner lives of the great ladies of the theater, this is the book for you." --Graciela Daniele
"A wonderful collection of interviews that are honest, comprehensive and fascinating. What a treasure to hear all these extraordinary women tell their stories in their own words!" --Kathleen Marshall
"Shapiro states that he wanted to create a tapestry, an oral history, of the last 60 years of American musical theater, and he has succeeded...Highly recommended for readers who are interested in the theater, women performers, and those who dream of being on Broadway." -- Library Journal
"[Falling] somewhere between a
reference book and my fantasy version of People magazine from a parallel universe where Broadway musicals are the dominant art form...[this] book offers diehard fans new facets to admire about favorites, and newer fans may be inspired to learn more about the myriad shows and personalities mentioned within the book's pages." --Talkin Broadway
About the Author
Eddie Shapiro is a freelance writer and theater journalist whose work has appeared in Out Magazine, Instinct, and Backstage West. He is the author of Queens in the Kingdom: The Ultimate Gay and Lesbian Guide to the Disney Theme Parks.
- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (February 28, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0199941203
- ISBN-13: 978-0199941209
- Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.1 x 1.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Freelance writer and theater journalist, Eddie Shapiro has put together twenty-one conversational interviews he conducted with some of Broadway's leading ladies. Shapiro informs his readers that he was fortunate to grow up in New York City where he was exposed to Broadway productions at a very early age. When he grew older, he would attend cabaret performances of some of Broadway's leading ladies.
As he points out in the Forward to Nothing Like A Dame: Conversations With The Great Women of Musical Theater, “The history of musical theater is full of incredible, indelible female roles.... Everyone of these amazing characters has been played (and in many cases, created) by at least one of the incredible women in this book.” It is these women and their roles that share their exciting experiences with Shapiro which include Carol Channing, Leslie Uggams, Chita Rivera, Elaine Stritch, Angela Lansbury and several others who are captured within the pages of the book.
All of the women interviewed have devoted a huge portion of their careers to the theater and there is no one who started in the theater and moved one such as Barbara Streisand. There are no stars as Lisa Minnelli who “visit” Broadway, and there are no one-hit wonders as Judy Holiday. In addition, each of the performers had to 6have at least one Tony Award and one other nomination or major award.
Shapiro points in his introduction that it was his objective to create comprehensive conversations with these women that would be career encompassing.
Consequently, the questions are not superficial but rather deep and penetrating to understand what makes these icons tick. For example, if we refer to the Leslie Uggams interview there are seventy five questions conducted during April and May of 2009.
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