An Afternoon with Jack Viertel, Stamford Native and Author of The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows Are Built
Sunday, April 10 at 2 p.m.
Main Library, DiMattia Building, Third Floor Auditorium
Putting it together, bit by bit: an insider’s look at the anatomy of the Broadway musical.
Jack Viertel (photo from Ferguson Library website)
Jack Viertel returns to his native Stamford for a talk about his new book which will enlighten and entertain theater lovers!
Born and raised in Stamford (Shippan Point and North Stamford), he’s been a major figure in the Broadway theater world for more than 30 years.
He’s helped create shows like Hairspray, Angels in America, and Into the Woods, served as dramaturg of the Mark Taper Forum in L.A., and is currently senior vice president of Jujamcyn Theaters, which host such shows as The Book of Mormon and Jersey Boys.
Not long ago, Viertel noticed that while colleges offer intensive classes on Shakespeare’s plays, dissecting them line by line to uncover their structure and meaning, there was nothing that dealt with musical theater in the same in-depth way. And why shouldn’t there be? he asked. If Shakespeare is England’s national theater, aren’t Broadway musicals ours?
In The Secret Life of the American Musical, Viertel gives musicals the Shakespeare treatment. The book draws on a range of examples–from Carousel to Wicked, The Music Man to The Book of Mormon – and personal encounters to paint a picture of how Broadway musicals are made, taking you through all the phases of a typical musical theater story, from opening numbers to finales.
It’s a hilarious and compelling look at what Viertel has learned over the course of his career, full of observations about the egotists, geniuses, and workaday professionals who have sustained this unique American art form.
The New York Times asserts,”The result is both revelatory and entertaining.” (Read the full review.)
Light refreshments will be served. A book sale and signing will follow the presentation. For information, call 203 351-8231.
— an announcement from Ferguson Library