Look for the Silver Lining

Ethan Mordden just makes me laugh...either he is spot on and I giggle out loud or I think he's totally wrong and I want to shake him but either way he's funny about it. His book Broadway Babies: The People Who Made The American Musical, breaks up different aspects of the musical into chapters and then examines them in a somewhat chronological fashion.

I scimmed through most of it to make sure I wasn't missing huge insight into what made Dorothy Fields tick (there is a biography of her thank heavens) but really I just stuck to the chapters about the "heroine" as he calls it. The first chapter talking about the early female starts, and how their characters changed as the form moved from comic opera to musical comedy. Most of the first chapter was devoted to Marilyn Miller and Sally examining the Cinderella style innocence which sold over voice.

I liked the second chapter the best because after skimming over Gertrude Lawrence (who is Julie Andrews in my head thank you Star) dealt entirly with Ethel Merman and Mary Martin. As much as I'm devoted to these two ladies it had never struck me before exactly how much they shaped the form. They were magnetic performers and as they grew out of sidekick roles a new kind of heroine was created for them. Mordden also points out that through all this time there are no men or even male characters that come close to shaping the artform the way these ladies and their roles did. My favorite quote of his said, "Men run musical comedy, as producers and authors. What on earth are they thinking? Tough dames and trouser roles." Damn striaght. But isn't that interesting. All along I've been trying to figure out what it was the ladies did and how that shaped the ladies roles. But really the men shaped the ladies roles...what do you think would happen if women started creating roles for women the way these men did for all these years. That's an interesting thought.

The last chapter talks about how great Liza is and how Barbara Cook is wonderful but only stared in cult classics so she gave it up to be a cabaret star. There's a chunck on how Gwen Verdon could carry a show the size of Mt. Everest and still do it kicking but we all knew that already too.

Well some cool stuff and lots of funnys. I would like to go back and read the whole thing when I get the chance. I may tackle the lesbian book next....we'll see how that goes.

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