The Secret Life of the American Musical

November 9, 2015
Viertel’s friendly scrutiny of Broadway is a valuable addition to the theater lover’s bookshelf. Viertel, senior v-p of Jujamcyn Theaters (owner of five Broadway houses) and artistic director of New York City Center’s Encores! series, writes from authority and experience, having had a hand in such Broadway hits as Hairspray and The Book of Mormon. As a professor at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, he began to offer critical courses on Broadway musicals. This book emerged out of those classes. It uses iconic shows such as Gypsy, Guys and Dolls, My Fair Lady, and South Pacific to explain and explore the patterns underlying much of musical theater. Viertel shares unvarnished opinions—for example, he declares that the bench scene from Carousel (when “If I Loved You” is sung) is “arguably the most perfect scene ever written in a musical”—as he takes readers from overture to the “11 o’clock number,” or final star turn. It’s a shame that Viertel doesn’t acknowledge a debt to legendary Broadway musical director Lehman Engel, whose Words with Music set the bar. In the end, theater fans will appreciate the dips into memoir and Viertel’s takes on original cast albums.