Gower Champion

Gower Champion's career spanned the years during which American musical theatre was transformed from a crude popular entertainment into a sophisticated art form. As the director and choreographer of Hello, Dolly!, 42nd Street, and other Broadway musicals, he was central to that transformation. He came of age during the zenith of American musical theatre production and made his mark on both sides of the curtain. As a dancer, he gained notoriety through his work with Jeanne Tyler and Marjorie Belcher, and his experience as a performer gave him a solid foundation for his later success as an organizer of memorable productions. As a choreographer and director, he became known for spectacular numbers that blended dance, staging, and elaborate scenography. More than anyone else, he seemed to realize that the achievement of a musical depended on those spots where music, dance, lighting, costumes, and staging created a sustained narrative and emotional flow through sound and motion rather than words. This book provides the first extensive treatment of Champion's life and legendary career. The book falls neatly into two main sections. The first discusses Champion's career as a performer, with chapters on his early Broadway appearances and his work for MGM Special attention is given to how his experiences as a dancer prepared him for the later half of his career. The second examines his work as a choreographer and director and is organized around the musicals with which he was involved. Each chapter consists of a history of one or more of those productions, from original concept to opening night and sometimes beyond, as Champion, ever the perfectionist, sought to improve on what everyone else thought was already perfect. The volume is fully documented, with basic historical research conducted at several special collections. In addition, the book is based on a careful analysis of Champion's scripts, which include numerous revisions and thus illuminate how he crafted his productions. Finally, the study depends on interviews conducted with various individuals who knew and worked with Champion throughout his impressive career.

“Let's Dance” is a fantastic vintage guide to social dancing. It has step-by-step instructions for a variety of traditional dances, as well chapters on history, popularity, general remarks, and much more. This volume is highly recommended for novices and veteran dancers looking to expand their repertoire. Contents include: “From Polka to Mambo – The History of Social Dancing in America”, “On Your Mark, Get Set – Preparing to dance... Simplest Exercises”, “Everybody Does the Foxtrot – The Stance for Dancing... Learning Rhythm... Foxtrot charts”, “Waltzing is Wonderful – The Origins... Waltz Charts”, “Let's Go Latin – Samba... Rumba... Mambo”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on dance.

During the Golden Age of the Broadway musical, few director-choreographers could infuse a new musical with dance and movement in quite the way Gower Champion could. From his earliest Broadway success with Bye Bye Birdie to his triumphant and bittersweet valedictory, 42nd Street, musicals directed by Champion filled the proscenium with life. At their best, they touched the heart and stirred the soul with a skillful blend of elegance and American showmanship. He began his career as one-half of "America's Youngest Dance Team" with Jeanne Tyler and later teamed with his wife, dance partner, and longtime collaborator, Marge Champion. This romantic ballroom duo danced across America in the smartest clubs and onto the television screen, performing story dances that captivated the country. They ultimately took their talent to Hollywood, where they starred in the 1951 remake of Show Boat, Lovely to Look At, and other films. But Broadway always called to Champion, and in 1959 he was tapped to direct Bye Bye Birdie. The rest is history. In shows like Birdie, Carnival, Hello, Dolly!, I Do! I Do!, Sugar, and 42nd Street, luminaries such as Chita Rivera, Dick Van Dyke, Carol Channing, Mary Martin, Robert Preston, Tony Roberts, Robert Morse, Tammy Grimes, and Jerry Orbach brought Champion's creative vision to life. Working with composers and writers like Jerry Herman, Michael Stewart, Charles Strouse, Lee Adams, and Bob Merrill, he streamlined the musical making it flow effortlessly with song and dance from start to finish. John Gilvey has spoken with many of the people who worked with Champion, and in Before the Parade Passes By he tells the life story of this most American of Broadway musical director-choreographers from his early days dancing with Marge to his final days spent meticulously honing the visual magic of 42nd Street. Before the Parade Passes By is the life story of one man who personified the glory of the Broadway musical right up until the moment of his untimely death. When the curtain fell to thunderous applause on the opening night of 42nd Street, August 25, 1980, legendary impresario David Merrick came forward, silenced the audience, and announced that Champion had died that morning. As eminent theatre critic Ethan Mordden has firmly put it, "the Golden Age was over." Though the Golden Age of the Broadway musical is over, John Gilvey brings it to life again by telling the story of Gower Champion, one of its most passionate and creative legends.

From Maria in "West Side Story" to Tracy Turnblatt in "Hairspray" and Elphaba in "Wicked," female characters in Broadway musicals have belted and crooned their way into the American psyche. In this lively book, Stacy Wolf illuminates the women of American musical theater—performers, creators, and characters—from the start of the cold war to the present day, creating a new, feminist history of the genre, which finds often overlooked moments of empowerment for female audience members. Moving from decade to decade, Wolf first highlights the assumptions that circulated about gender and sexuality at the time, and then looks at the leading musicals, stressing the key aspects of the plays as they relate to women. The musicals discussed here are among the most beloved in the canon—"West Side Story," "Guys & Dolls," "Cabaret," "Phantom of the Opera," and many others—with special emphasis on the blockbuster "Wicked." Along the way, Wolf demonstrates how the musical since the mid-1940s has actually been dominated by women—women onstage, women in the wings, and women offstage as spectators and fans.

(Fake Book). This fifth edition has been completely revised and now includes over 820 standards from 260 shows. Perfect for professional gigging musicians or hobbyists who simply want all their favorites in one collection! Songs include: Ain't Misbehavin' * All I Ask of You * And All That Jazz * And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going * Another Op'nin', Another Show * Another Suitcase in Another Hall * At the Ballet * Any Dream Will Do * Beauty and the Beast * Before the Parade Passes By * Big Girls Don't Cry * Bring Him Home * Capped Teeth and Caesar Salad * Castle on a Cloud * A Change in Me * Circle of Life * Close Every Door to Me * The Color Purple * Comedy Tonight * Consider Yourself * Don't Cry for Me Argentina * Edelweiss * Footloose * Getting to Know You * Hakuna Matata * Heat Wave * Hello, Dolly! * I Wanna Be a Producer * I'm Not Wearing Underwear Today * If I Said I Loved You * The Impossible Dream (The Quest) * It Only Takes a Moment * The Light in the Piazza * Love Changes Everything * Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now * Mama Who Bore Me * Mamma Mia * Memory * My Junk * On My Own * People * Popular * Prepare Ye (The Way of the Lord) * Seasons of Love * Seventy Six Trombones * The Song That Goes like This * Springtime for Hitler * The Surrey with the Fringe on Top * There Is Nothin' like a Dame * Tomorrow * Transylvania Mania * Try to Remember * and hundreds more!

An authoritative reference for this highly popular genre, this book covers Broadway, Hollywood and television in one volume. With more than two thousand entries, this book offers a wealth of information on musicals, performers, composers, lyricists, producers, choreographers, and much more.

Gathered in this large volume paperback are some of Hollywood's best loved and most famous movies. In addition to the many film classics, however, the author has included a number of equally entertaining films that deserve to be better known. Many of these movies are now available on DVD. Full credits and detailed reviews are provided for over a hundred of these classic films. Over two hundred more movies are represented by short reviews. Many of the reviews contain DVD details. Of course, not all classic movies have surfaced on DVD to date, but they are being issued at the rate of around forty a month! If you love classic movies, this book will provide an invaluable guide to some of the enjoyable films that are now available (and also, of course, some of the disappointing films that you might wisely avoid).

Did you know that Frank Sinatra was nearly considered for the original production of Fiddler on the Roof? Or that Jerome Robbins never choreographed the famous "Dance at the Gym" in West Side Story? Or that Lin-Manuel Miranda called out an audience member on Twitter for texting during a performance of Hamilton (the perpetrator was Madonna)? In Show and Tell: The New Book of Broadway Anecdotes, Broadway aficionado-in-chief Ken Bloom takes us on a spirited spin through some of the most intriguing factoids in show business, offering up an unconventional history of the theatre in all its idiosyncratic glory. From the cantankerous retorts of George Abbott to the literally show-stopping antics of Katharine Hepburn, you'll learn about the adventures and star turns of some of the Broadway's biggest personalities, and discover little-known tidbits about beloved plays and musicals from The Black Crook to Beautiful.