My Account Wish List
Advanced Search
Print - Close Window
www.greenwood.com/catalog/LNY%2f.aspx
All Greenwood Products
The Encyclopedia of the New York Stage, 1930-1940
(Click to Enlarge)
This book is not currently available for purchase Online. Please call 1-800-225-5800 to backorder.
Samuel L. Leiter
Book Code: LNY/
ISBN: 0-313-25509-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-25509-0
1339 pages
Greenwood Press
Publication: 9/5/1989
List Price: $275.00 (UK Sterling Price: £155.00)
Availability: Out of stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • This carries the coverage begun in Leiter's Encyclopedia of the New York Sage, 1920-1930 (reviewed in WLB, December 1985) forward another decade. It follows the first volume's pattern of listing for each of the decade's Broadway and Off-Broadway productions its creative personnel, summarizing its plot, and characterizing its critical reception through generous quotations from reviews. Also like the first volume, this offers ten appendixes (e.g., award winners, plays derived from other works, longest running shows, and seasonal statistics) and indexes by proper names and play titles. The thoroughness of coverage and richness of detail on each play exceed most libraries' need for information on a single decade of New York theater seasons; however, libraries with wide-ranging theater history collections will welcome the additional depth this gives those collections.
    —Wilson Library Bulletin
  • Publication of Leiter's encyclopedia began in 1985 with the decade of the 1920s. The format of this continuation is unchanged. The body of the work lists approximately 1,800 professional productions in Manhattan theaters during the '30s, arranged by title. Production personnel, theater, length of run, etc., are given; this information is followed by comments from the press and descriptions from the memoirs of theater figures (listed in an extensive bibliography). The criteria for selection of productions are clearly stated in the preface. . . . This is fascinating stuff for theater enthusiasts, and the value of each segment will grow as the series continues and it thus becomes possible to follow individual careers and trends over longer periods of time. It is a well-made volume with interesting appendixes and an accurate index. For any reference collections whose users ask theater questions.
    —Choice
  • . . . This is an important source on the theater for reference collections. Libraries having the earlier work will certainly want to purchase this companion volume. . .
    —American Reference Books Annual
  • From Greenwood Press of Westport, CT, comes a broadly documented survey by Samual L. Leiter, The Encyclopedia of the New York Stage, 1930-1940. It carries a comprehensive listing of some 1,800 professionally staged productions, including plays, musicals, revues, and revivals. Each entry includes full data on individuals involved, and historic background, a plot summary, and quotes from reviews.
    —Backstage
Description: This is the second volume in an unprecedented series devoted to the New York stage in the twentieth century. It provides a description of approximately 1,800 theatrical productions given in the New York professional theatre for the decade 1930-1940. Every legitimate theatre production--including plays, musicals, revues, and revivals--is chronicled in an easily referenced, alphabetical format. Not restricted to English-language productions, the collection includes every known foreign-language production visiting the city and reviewed in the English-language press. The volume also provides extensive entries for ethnic theatre offerings including plays produced in Italian, Yiddish, and French. A comprehensive listing for each entry includes (wherever possible) title, genre category, subject categories, author, translator, revisionist, music, lyricist, source book or other work, director, choreographer, set designer, costume designer, lighting designer, producer, theatre, opening date, and length of run. The text following each entry offers, as comprehensive as possible, a view of the work described. It gives important historical background, a summary of the plot, amusing anecdotes, and an idea of the critical reaction to the performance. Representative quotes of critics are incorporated verbatim or in paraphrase, with source. The volume concludes with a selected bibliography. Ten appendixes provide the following quick-reference listings: a chronological calendar of productions, plays listed by category, major play awards, novels and plays providing sources for plays and musicals, institutional theatres and their offerings, foreign-performing troupes, long-run hits of the period, abbreviations of newspapers and periodicals cited in the text, the season-by-season breakdown of production totals, and all Broadway and Off Broadway theatres at which the plays described were produced. An introductory overview of issues and developments on the New York stage from 1930 to 1940 provides essential background information for understanding the context in which the chronicled works were first viewed. This important reference tool will be of special interest to students and historians of drama.
Table of Contents:
  • Preface
  • Introduction
  • The New York Stage, 1930-1940
  • Appendix 1: Calendar of Productions
  • Appendix 2: Play Categories
  • Appendix 3: Awards
  • Appendix 4: Sources of Plays
  • Appendix 5: Institutional Theatres
  • Appendix 6: Foreign Companies and Stars
  • Appendix 7: Longest Running Shows of the 1930s
  • Appendix 8: List of Review Source Abbreviations
  • Appendix 9: Seasonal Statistics
  • Appendix 10: Theatres
  • Selected Bibliography
  • Index of Proper Names
  • Index of Titles
LC Card Number: 88-5668
LCC Class: PN2277
Dewey Class: 792.9
All rights reserved. Copyright © 1999-2008 Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
88 Post Road West, Westport CT 06881, (203) 226-3571