Closer than Ever
The Unique Six-Decade Songwriting Partnership of Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire
Series: Broadway Legacies;
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP USA
- Date of Publication 13 November 2024
- ISBN 9780197758236
- Binding Hardback
- No. of pages328 pages
- Size 226x155x27 mm
- Weight 612 g
- Language English
- Illustrations 89 537
Categories
Short description:
This book provides a unique chronicle and analysis of the work of Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire, an extraordinary Broadway songwriting team whose work is revered by musical theater aficionados. Anyone interested in Broadway musicals will enjoy this book, which covers other well-known figures who feature prominently in the Maltby/Shire story, including Stephen Sondheim, Harold Prince, Francis Ford Coppola, Craig Lucas, Mike Ockrent, Susan Stroman, Garth Drabinsky, and Jonathan Tunick. The book includes enlightening, entertaining interviews with the subjects as well as illuminating analyses of some of Maltby and Shire's greatest songs.
MoreLong description:
How do musical theater songs actually get written? What enables some composer and lyricist partnerships to last for decades?
Composer David Shire and lyricist Richard Maltby, Jr., two of the most gifted songwriters of our time, are revered among musical theater lovers for their ground-breaking off-Broadway revues Starting Here, Starting Now and Closer Than Ever, as well as for the Broadway musicals Baby and Big. Rosenblum sets out to increase appreciation for Maltby and Shire's large and impressive body of work and establish their place in musical theater history. This book chronicles their sixty-six-year (and counting) partnership, giving full behind-the-scenes accounts of their musicals, interspersed with deep-dive analyses of standout individual numbers. Other well-known artistic figures who feature prominently in the Maltby/Shire story include Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince, Michael Stewart, Francis Ford Coppola, Craig Lucas, Mike Ockrent, Susan Stroman, John Weidman, Charles Strouse, Garth Drabinsky, Adam Gopnik, Jason Robert Brown, and Jonathan Tunick.
Using his experiences as a Broadway conductor, music journalist, and professor of musical theater composition, as well as his long-term personal and professional acquaintance with both Maltby and Shire, Joshua Rosenblum is uniquely suited to chronicle their lives, careers, and creative output. The songwriters, both of whom are engaging and articulate in describing what they do, are quoted liberally throughout the book in exclusive interviews, creating the impression that one is spending time with two inspiring creative artists who happen to be great company.
When a biographer digs deep enough to find that a theme song from a TV show in the 1970s actually came from a 1960s musical that closed before braving Broadway, you know he's done his research. Joshua Rosenblum, a respected musical director of many Broadway musicals, took a break from the podium to write this astonishing study of Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire's works. In unstinting detail, he has chronicled their great successes and bad-luck failures, all the while reminding us how great a songwriting team can be without becoming household names. And speaking of households, this book belongs in every one where a musical theater fan lives.
Table of Contents:
Preface
1. Origins
2. The Fair-Haired Boys: The Sap of Life
3. Barbra
4. Dealing with Steve
5. I Have a Rich Wife: Love Match
6. How Bad Could I Be?
7. The First Thing They Give You is Writing the Obits
8. Lynne
9. Starting Here, Starting Now
10. "I Don't Remember Christmas"
11. He's the Arbiter, Really
12. Remember That Fats Waller Idea?: Ain't Misbehavin'
13. At the End of the Song, Everyone's Pregnant!
14. Baby
15. "The Story Goes On"
16. French is a Language That Doesn't Scan: Miss Saigon
17. One of the Finest Scores of the Year
18. Closer Than Ever
19. "The Bear, the Tiger, the Hamster and the Mole"
20. It Should Have Been Called "Small"
21. Big
22. "Little Susan Lawrence"
23. Bob Fosse's Wife, his Mistress, and his Daughter: Fosse
24. Next Thing I Knew I Was Writing the Show: Take Flight
25. Working with Other People
26. Produced by a Convicted Felon: Sousatzka
27. America Will Break Your Heart: Dancers at a Waterfall
28. Post-Partum: Baby Revival
29. Oh, That's What Those Songs Were About!
30. The Songwriters' Songwriters
Appendix A: Starting Here, Starting Now - Musical Numbers and Sources
Appendix B: Closer Than Ever - Musical Numbers and Sources
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Index
