The Abbott Touch

This in-depth and original study examines 100 productions and analyses why George Abbott's name became synonymous with the 'golden age' of Broadway. What did Abbott contribute? How did he work? How did he innovate the industry? How did he survive so long? All of these inquiries, and more, lead to the most fundamental question of all: what exactly was the famous “Abbott touch”? For sixty years, George Abbott was a vital force in the American theatre. As an actor, playwright, director, librettist, play doctor, and producer, he laid his "touch" on approximately 100 New York productions, from The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees through to Once Upon a Mattress and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Spanning this incredible figure's work chronologically, each chapter of The Abbott Touch examines a period of creativity in his life, culminating in how he became the famous multi-hyphenate artist he is now celebrated as. Beginning with his early career in 1913 through to his work on the 1994 revival of Damn Yankees, this book analyses his key contributions to his primary works, all of which have relied on his genius. The first study of its kind, The Abbott Touch provides key insights into the working life of one of the 20th Century's most prolific theatre practitioners, as well as a vital history for theatre scholars and fans alike.

This in-depth and original study examines 100 productions and analyses why George Abbott's name became synonymous with the 'golden age' of Broadway. What did Abbott contribute? How did he work? How did he innovate the industry? How did he survive so long? All of these inquiries, and more, lead to the most fundamental question of all: what exactly was the famous “Abbott touch”? For sixty years, George Abbott was a vital force in the American theatre. As an actor, playwright, director, librettist, play doctor, and producer, he laid his "touch" on approximately 100 New York productions, from The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees through to Once Upon a Mattress and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Spanning this incredible figure's work chronologically, each chapter of The Abbott Touch examines a period of creativity in his life, culminating in how he became the famous multi-hyphenate artist he is now celebrated as. Beginning with his early career in 1913 through to his work on the 1994 revival of Damn Yankees, this book analyses his key contributions to his primary works, all of which have relied on his genius. The first study of its kind, The Abbott Touch provides key insights into the working life of one of the 20th Century's most prolific theatre practitioners, as well as a vital history for theatre scholars and fans alike.

"This in-depth and original study examines 100 productions and analyses why George Abbott's name became synonymous with the 'golden age' of Broadway. It asks questions such as what did he contribute?; how did he work?; what innovations did he come up with?; how did he survive so long?; leading to the fundamental question of what exactly was the famous "Abbott touch"? For sixty years, George Abbott was a vital force in the American theatre. As an actor, playwright, director, librettist, play doctor, and producer, he laid his "touch" on approximately one hundred New York productions from The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees through to Sweet Charity and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Spanning Abbott's work chronologically, each chapter examines a period of creativity in his life leading up to him becoming the multi-hyphenate artist he is now famously known as. Beginning with his early career in 1913 through to his work on the 1994 revival of Damn Yankees, each chapter analyses his key contributions to the primary works that have since been attributed to his genius. The first study of its kind, this book offer a key insight into the working life of one of the 20th century's most prolific theatre practitioners, as well as offering a vital history for theatre scholars and fans alike"--

“Honest, touching, and beautifully rendered . . . Far more than a book about baseball, it is a deeply felt story of triumph and failure, dreams and disappointments. Jim Abbott has hurled another gem.”—Jonathan Eig, New York Times bestselling author of Luckiest Man NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Born without a right hand, Jim Abbott dreamed of someday being a great athlete. Raised in Flint, Michigan, by parents who encouraged him to compete, Jim would become an ace pitcher for the University of Michigan. But his journey was only beginning: By twenty-one, he’d won the gold medal game at the 1988 Olympics and—without spending a day in the minor leagues—cracked the starting rotation of the California Angels. In 1991, he would finish third in the voting for the Cy Young Award. Two years later, he would don Yankee pinstripes and pitch one of the most dramatic no-hitters in major-league history. In this honest and insightful book, Jim Abbott reveals the challenges he faced in becoming an elite pitcher, the insecurities he dealt with in a life spent as the different one, and the intense emotion generated by his encounters with disabled children from around the country. With a riveting pitch-by-pitch account of his no-hitter providing the ideal frame for his story, this unique athlete offers readers an extraordinary and unforgettable memoir. “Compelling . . . [a] big-hearted memoir.”—Los Angeles Times “Inspirational.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer Includes an exclusive conversation between Jim Abbott and Tim Brown in the back of the book.

Hugo Award-nominated novelist Saladin Ahmed (Black Bolt) and artist Sami Kivelä (Beautiful Canvas) present one woman’s search for the truth that destroyed her family. Hard-nosed, chain-smoking tabloid reporter Elena Abbott investigates a series of grisly crimes that the police have ignored. Crimes she knows to be the work of dark occult forces. Forces that took her husband from her. Forces she has sworn to destroy.

Bob Fosse is one of the most significant figures in the post-World War II American musical theater

The Essential Berkeley and Neo-Berkeley is an introduction to the life and work of one of the most significant thinkers in the history of philosophy and a penetrating philosophical assessment of his lasting legacy. David Berman goes beyond providing an introduction and gives us a broader and deeper appreciation of Berkeley as a philosopher. He argues for Berkeley's work as a philosophical system with coherence and important key themes hitherto unexplored and provides an analysis of why he thinks Berkeley's work has had such lasting significance. With a particular focus on Berkeley's dualist thinking and theories of 'mental types', Berman provides the reader with a key to unlocking the significance of this work. This introductory text will provide an insight into Berkeley's full body of work, the distinctiveness of his thinking and how deeply relevant this key thinker is to contemporary philosophy.

This multifaceted study, the companion volume to Leiter's From Stanislavsky to Barrault: Representative Directors of the European Stage (Greenwood Press, 1991), provides exhaustively detailed, yet compact accounts of the careers and accomplishments of eight outstanding directors of the English-speaking stage as well as separate, thorough bibliographies and chronologies of each. Samuel L. Leiter selected directors David Belasco, Harley Granville-Barker, George Abbott, Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Margaret Webster, Elia Kazan, Joan Littlewood, and Peter Brook as exemplars of the broad spectrum of directorial art as it has developed in the twentieth century; his cogent introduction identifies salient aspects of that art and reveals the wide divergence of directorial styles and techniques employed by the group. From commercial to classic to avant garde, their stylistic attitudes toward production include Belasco's minutely detailed naturalism, Guthrie's whimsical interpretations of the classics, and Littlewood's improvisational, anti-establishment, left-wing stance. Their varied rehearsal methods show how these directorial greats transformed the nature of the theatre experience through their unique vision of what stage production could encompass. Innovations by these directors in both the shape and function of the performance space are highlighted as are their theatre writings, many of which form the foundation for Western theatrical thought in our times. Following the introduction, each of the eight chapters is organized into subsections that discuss the individual director's career, concept of theatre art and directing, and actual working methods. Each director is thoroughly assessed in terms of repertory, major productions, theoretical concerns, casting methods, rehearsal processes, and techniques of working with actors, playwrights, designers, and composers. Separate chronologies and a select bibliography complete the work, which will have significant appeal to a diverse group of readers, from stage directing students and their teachers to active professionals in the field and those general readers seeking a broader understanding of twentieth century theatre and stage direction. An excellent choice for text or supplementary reading for classes in stage directing.