COHEN, Douglas J. [Charles Strouse].
How to Survive a Killer Musical: Agony and Ecstasy on the Road to Broadway.
Essex, Connecticut: Applause Theatre & Cinema Books , 2023.
$400.00
In Stock
Item Number: RRB-152206
+$500
First Edition of Douglas J. Cohen's How to Survive a Killer Musical; Inscribed by Him to Broadway Composer Charles Strouse in the Year of Publication
First edition of the composer-lyricist's candid memoir of bringing his musical No Way to Treat a Lady to the stage. Octavo, original publisher's boards, illustrated with black-and-white photographs. Association copy, inscribed by the author in the year of publication on the title page, "For Charles, In appreciation of your wonderful music, friendship, and support. All my best, Doug. 11/4/23." The recipient, Charles Strouse, was a Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award-winning composer whose fifty-year career produced some of the most enduring works in the history of American musical theater, among them Bye Bye Birdie, Applause, and Annie, as well as the theme song for the classic sitcom All in the Family ("Those Were the Days"). His partnership with Martin Charnin on Annie produced one of Broadway's most successful scores ever, with "Tomorrow" and other songs from the production becoming enduring American musical standards admired by generations. His reach knew no genre or generation, from a number-one Billboard hit in 1958 to Jay-Z's Grammy-winning sampling of "It's the Hard-Knock Life" four decades later, and his honors include three Tony Awards and induction into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Theater Hall of Fame. From the collection of Strouse and his wife, the choreographer Barbara Siman. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Sally Rinehart. Accompanied by a signed letter from the author to Strouse laid in, dated November 16, 2023, in which Cohen recalls their reunion a few months earlier at Strouse's 95th-birthday concert at the supper club 54 Below, regrets having narrowly missed him at the Manhattan School of Music's production of Bye Bye Birdie, and notes that Strouse played a major role in his journey with No Way to Treat a Lady.
How to Survive a Killer Musical: Agony and Ecstasy on the Road to Broadway (2023) is the candid and disarmingly self-deprecating memoir of the composer-lyricist Douglas J. Cohen, who chronicles the long and turbulent odyssey of bringing his musical No Way to Treat a Lady from the page to the stage. Adapted from the 1964 novel by William Goldman, the celebrated author of The Princess Bride and Marathon Man, Cohen's musical thriller about a narcissistic serial killer and the detective who pursues him became the consuming project of his early career, and his account traces every exhilarating triumph and crushing setback along the way, from auditions and out-of-town tryouts to endless rewrites, rejections, and the unpredictable verdicts of critics and audiences. Published by Applause Theatre and Cinema Books, the volume is at once a backstage comedy of errors and a heartfelt love letter to the American musical theater, populated by the mentors, collaborators, and luminaries, among them Charles Strouse, who shaped Cohen's path. Wry, intimate, and rich in hard-won wisdom about the realities of a life in the theater, it offers an unusually honest portrait of what it truly takes to survive the making of a Broadway musical.
How to Survive a Killer Musical: Agony and Ecstasy on the Road to Broadway.
$400.00
In Stock
