The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway
Encyclopedia
The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway is an account of the 1967-68 season on and off Broadway
by American
novelist and screenwriter
William Goldman
. It was originally published in 1969 and is considered one of the best books ever written on American theater. In The New York Times
, Christopher Lehmann-Haup called the book “Very nearly perfect. ... It is a loose-limbed, gossipy, insider, savvy, nuts-and-bolts report on the annual search for the winning numbers that is now big-time American commercial theatre.”
Goldman reports in the book that he spent over 18 months of reporting on the book, seeing every show on Broadway, many of them more than once, as well as preview productions in the principal try-out towns like Boston, New Haven and Washington, D.C.
The book is presented roughly in chronological order throughout the season. It analyzes the Broadway audience and the economics of Broadway theatre at the time, as well as the shows given during the season, and it profiles or interviews the significant theatrical personalities of the day. The plays and musicals described include Johnny No-Trump
, The Birthday Party
, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Plaza Suite
, The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N, George M, Darling of the Day, The Happy Time
, The Price
, How Now, Dow Jones
, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
, Hair
and The Boys in the Band
, among others.
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
novelist and screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
William Goldman
William Goldman
William Goldman is an American novelist, playwright, and Academy Award-winning screenwriter.-Early life and education:...
. It was originally published in 1969 and is considered one of the best books ever written on American theater. In The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Christopher Lehmann-Haup called the book “Very nearly perfect. ... It is a loose-limbed, gossipy, insider, savvy, nuts-and-bolts report on the annual search for the winning numbers that is now big-time American commercial theatre.”
Goldman reports in the book that he spent over 18 months of reporting on the book, seeing every show on Broadway, many of them more than once, as well as preview productions in the principal try-out towns like Boston, New Haven and Washington, D.C.
The book is presented roughly in chronological order throughout the season. It analyzes the Broadway audience and the economics of Broadway theatre at the time, as well as the shows given during the season, and it profiles or interviews the significant theatrical personalities of the day. The plays and musicals described include Johnny No-Trump
Johnny No-Trump
Johnny No-Trump is a play written by Mary Mercier which ran for one performance on Broadway.Johnny No-Trump opened at the Cort Theatre on October 8, 1967 and ran for 5 previews and one regular performance...
, The Birthday Party
The Birthday Party (play)
The Birthday Party is the first full-length play by Harold Pinter and one of Pinter's best-known and most-frequently performed plays...
, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Plaza Suite
Plaza Suite
Plaza Suite is a comedy play by Neil Simon.-Plot:The play is composed of three acts, each involving different characters but all set in Suite 719 of New York City's Plaza Hotel...
, The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N, George M, Darling of the Day, The Happy Time
The Happy Time
The Happy Time is a 1952 movie directed by the award-winning director Richard Fleischer, based on the 1945 novel of the same name by Robert Fontaine, which Samuel A. Taylor turned it into a hit play. A boy, played by Bobby Driscoll, comes of age in a close-knit French-Canadian family. The film...
, The Price
The Price (play)
The Price is a 1968 play by Arthur Miller. It is a piece about family dynamics, the price of furniture and the price of one's decisions. The play opened on Broadway at the Morosco Theatre on February 7, 1968 where it played until the production moved to the 46th Street Theatre on November 18, 1968....
, How Now, Dow Jones
How Now, Dow Jones
How Now, Dow Jones is a musical comedy by Academy Award winner Elmer Bernstein, Tony Award nominee Carolyn Leigh and Max Shulman. The original Broadway production opened in December 1967. A critically acclaimed revised version premiered in August 2009....
, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg is a 1967 play by English playwright Peter Nichols, first staged at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland before transferring to London's West End theatres in 1968.-Plot summary:Characters* Bri* Grace* Joe* Freddie...
, Hair
Hair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...
and The Boys in the Band
The Boys in the Band
The Boys in the Band is a 1970 American drama film directed by William Friedkin. The screenplay by Mart Crowley is based on his Off Broadway play of the same title, Crowley penned a sequel to the play years later entitled The Men From The Boys...
, among others.