The Alchemy of Theatre - The Divine Science: Essays on Theatre and the Art of Collaboration (Applause Books)
Like a typical Broadway season, this collection of essays on the various crafts of the theater trade is intermittently brilliant, self-serving and tedious. The central conceit of having directors, performers and various backstage wizards discuss the fine art of professional collaboration is a clever one that would seem to promise a generous helping of diva sagas and in-house backbiting. Instead, too many contributors take the concept as an excuse to name-check a relatively small group of favorite artists to work with, giving the proceedings the air of an extremely long Tony Awards ceremony. Thankfully, this collection is stocked with contributions from so many luminaries that there is still a bounty of excellent material, such as Edward Albee's cranky-sounding statement, "No one collaborates with me on a play." Cy Colman, the legendary late composer, provides one of the longest and most entertaining segments, waxing candidly about his sometimes volatile songwriting partnerships and the often difficult realities of bringing a show to the stage. Despite the book's choppiness, old-timers like Colman lend a poignant consistency with their elegies for a more dynamic, less focus-tested Broadway that they agree, sadly, has probably passed for good.(Nov.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.