Musical Theatre for Dummies

Broadway performer Rudetsky, also host of Sirius/XM Satellite Radio’s On Broadway, delivers a lively and informative guide to musical theater. The author pinpoints Show Boat as the first modern-day musical of the Golden Age and proceeds through modern productions, such as Hamilton, as he explains how groundbreaking musical theater changed in tone with each decade. The book’s anatomy of a musical’s production covers each creative phase from the planning stages through completion. A musical is a complex enterprise involving hundreds of individuals, and the book indicates how all the players—writers, composers, choreographers, costume designers, wigmakers, stage crew, and more—work together. The book also looks at what it takes to work in the theater; there are details of the ins and outs of actor auditions and a rundown of non-acting jobs. Conversational in tone with humorous asides, Rudetsky’s book also shares stories about shows and stars he has worked with and provides links to YouTube clips.