Word Crazy Broadway Lyricists from Cohan to Sondheim

Subjects:

• Popular Culture » Popular Music
• The Arts » Theater

Reviews:

• Hischak reviews the achievements of the men and women who wrote the words for the songs in American musicals of the 20th century. He employs a chronological approach, beginning with George M. Cohan and ending with a group of lyricists from the mid-1980s (e.g., William Finn, Richard Maltby Jr, Maury Yeston). He devotes separate chapters to 21 of the more prominent lyricists (such as Oscar Hammerstein II, Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart, Alan Jay Lerner, and Stephen Sondhiem) and illustrates how each built upon the work of earlier writers or took a different approach. Happily, he does not limit himself to the better-known lyricists. In four chapters he gives briefer treatment to 56 other lyricists (e.g., Carolyn Leigh, Martin Charnin, Joe Darion). Hischak's book complements Philip Furia's The Poets of Tin Pan Alley, and the two books consider many of the same writers. Furia looks at songs on stage and film, but Hischak sticks to Broadway musicals. (Furia quotes from lyrics much more heavily than does Hischak and emphasizes use of words and rhyme.) A few bibliographical notes follow most chapters, and a bibliography and index (names and titles only) conclude the volume. There are no illustrations. Will prove a good supplemental addition in all collections on the musical theater.
  —Choice
• Hischak....presents a lively and insightful analysis of the careers and major works of Broadway's most notable lyricists--Cohan, Berlin, Gershwin, Lerner, Harnick and others.... Hischak is able... to analyze numerous examples, to capture the spirit of the works he discusses, and illuminate the story of this heretofore little-appreciated aspect of musical theater.
  —Publisher's Weekly
• Word Crazy is a delight to read. Hischak's chronological placement of American lyricists takes Broadway musical fans (and even casual admirers) on a fact-filled trip down memory lane and will probably send them searching through their record bins to re-experience the power of melodicized words.
  —The Universitas
• For a general survey of Broadway lyricists, [this] book is a fine first step and will be informative reading for the general reader and useful for scholars who are working in the area of the contemporary musical.
  —Journal of American Culture

Table of Contents:

• Whistling the Lyrics: An Introduction
• The Man Who Owned Broadway: George M. Cohan
• As Thousands Cheered: Irving Berlin
• Going Up: Otto Harbach
• Leave It To Plum: P. G. Wodehouse
• No More Make-Believe: Oscar Hammerstein II
• Of Words I Sing: Ira Gershwin
• Anything Goes: Cole Porter
• On His Toes: Lorenz Hart
• On and Off the Bandwagon: Howard Dietz and Dorothy Fields
• Yip's Rainbow: E. Y. Harburg
• Also in the 1920s and 1930s
• Almost Like Being in Love: Alan Jay Lerner
• Two on the Aisle: Betty Comden and Adolph Green
• Make a Miracle: Frank Loesser
• Something's Coming: Stephen Sondheim
• Tradition: Sheldon Harnick
• Also in the 1940s and 1950s
• Sunday Clothes: Jerry Herman
• Trying to Remember: Tom Jones and Lee Adams
• A Quiet Thing: Fred Ebb
• Also in the 1960s and 1970s
• The Writing on the Wall: The 1980s
• Bibliography
• Index