BOOK BLOG: “Singular Sensation” by Michael Riedel

Thoughts:

A fascinating look at Broadway during from like the late 70s to early 2000s. I have a weird perspective on Broadway. I was raised on musicals, being fed tunes from every possible decade, so I have a pretty expansive knowledge of shows themselves. And being a “behind the scenes” freak, I have always loved to read about how shows came to be. That said, the only New York City I’ve ever known in real life is the version that existed post-“Disneyification.” My first Broadway show as I think The Lion King? I’d text Grandma Leedle to ask but she’s currently claiming her phone doesn’t work and she “can’t get messages” so we’ll go with that cuz the timing works. Though I know I did go see a Radio City show at some point cuz Leedle loves to tell me the story of me passing the theatre as a like five-year-old, looking at it longingly, and going, “One day, I’m gonna be on that stage.” (This is a story she truly has told me many times and one which I plan to repeat in interviews as often as possible.)

THE REASON I AM SAYING THIS, is because this book digs into the process of how New York City came to that point. It is so easy for me to always think of NYC as more or less safe. Those who remember it from the 70s would contest that idea. (Leedle still to this day is convinced I’m gonna get like stabbed walking through midtown, and begs me to keep my wallet like in an inner pocket so no one mugs me. Little does she know that I would never willingly walk through midtown as it, like all of New York, has become a hellish cesspool and of broken transit and mean people.)

I do not have a photo of the book cuz I borrowed it. But. Here’s a photo of its cover on my Google.

Wait I’m supposed to be writing about this book. What was I saying.

OH.

So the book is a journey from the late 70s to the early 2000s. (It ends on “The Producers” as the pinnacle of musical comedy, to place you on the timeline.) Riedel’s tone vacillates between bitchy and amicable. I learned a ton, though, about the behind the scenes (behind the curtain!!?!?!?) of the industry I adore. Did you know the producer of Ragtime turned out to be a huge scam artist? Did you know Rosie O’Donnell adored the musical Titanic? Did you know Michael Eisner wanted to build a theme park on top of a parking deck on 42nd Street? Did you know The Producers gave out free tickets to their rehearsals to the people who worked at their hotels when the company was staying in Chicago during tryouts?

Now you do.

I am interested to see what Reidel write(del)s about the next pair of decades. He talks briefly about all that followed (Wicked! Hamilton! Spider-Man! The Book of Mormon!) but mostly as a way to say, “I will tell you more about this when I write the next book okay???????”

RECOMMENDATION: I recommend this book to: basically just theatre people. This book does not have a very broad appeal. But if you like the boards and those who trod them…..peep it.