It Happened on Broadway: An Oral History of the Great White Way
by Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer

Every show has its share of war stories. One tends to hear a lot of them in the restaurant after the show or at the cast party; the juicier ones live on through the teller’s next show (or shows). Quite often what makes the story interesting is not the tale itself but the teller.

It Happened on Broadway: An Oral History of the Great White Way by Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer is chock-full of war stories. What makes these stories different than the usual tales told out of school is that they are tales of Broadway’s heyday. They paint a colorful portrait of the theatrical life in the Big Apple through stories told by the usual suspects, the performers, writers and producers, as well as choreographers, designers, agents, and critics.

Caricaturist Al Hirschfeld gets in his two cents; tales are told by the president and the owner of Sardi’s. Sometimes the change from one thread of stories to another is subtle enough that I found myself backtracking to find out where the change happened, exactly. We are told about the larger-than-life personalities that moved and shaped the Great White Way, many times by personalities equally as vigorous, from reminiscences about the creation and effect of Oklahoma! to the shows that were unexpected hits to designing costumes for The King and I to working with Fosse (and later Michael Bennett).

The result is a feeling of having been there for the premieres of the classics and the backstage battles, or at least the feeling of having a conversation (probably over drinks at Sardi’s) with the cast of Sondheim’s Follies (with "I’m Still Here" playing in the background). One feels the joys they express at their star turns or the monuments they worked with, as well as the wistful sighs at the passing of the time when theatre on Broadway flourished beyond the multi-million-dollar spectacles so prevalent of late.