The Secret Life of the American Musical ─ How Broadway Shows Are Built

For almost thirty years, Jack Viertel has been a major figure in the Broadway theater world--he's helped create shows likeHairspray, 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 asThe 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--fromCarousel 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.

Jack Viertel is the senior vice president of Jujamcyn Theaters, which owns and operates five Broadway theaters. He has been involved in dozens of productions presented by Jujamcyn since 1987. He is also the artistic director of New York City Center's Encores! series, which presents three musical productions every season. In that capacity he has overseen fifty shows, adapting the scripts for some. He was the dramaturg of the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and the drama critic and arts editor of theLos Angeles Herald Examiner. He teaches at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Viertel began his career playing National Steel-body guitar behind Bonnie Raitt, Son House, and the Pointer Sisters. He is a certified Memphis in May contest barbecue judge.