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A Year with The Producers
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by Jeffry Denman
Routledge
Due/Published
April 2002, 192 pages,
paper
ISBN
0878301542
What's it like to work in the biggest hit Broadway has seen in years? In this book based on his almost daily notes, Jeffry Denman tells the story of a year in one performer's life, from his job in the final days of Cats (now and forever, but finally closed) to a small but promising part in the Mel Brooks smash. Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft, Susan Stroman, Gary Beach, and Roger Bart are all here in Jeffry Denman's story. We follow The Producers from its first casting call to the Chicago tryouts; we watch numbers cut and roles reassigned; we are there at the record-breaking New York opening, and then at the Tony awards (where the show won more categories than any show in Tony history).
What makes this book special is that we watch through Jeffry Denman's eyes--not the star's perspective but the view from the chorus. Denman takes on several small roles in the show--the Blind Musician; the Little Wooden Boy; FDR; a little old lady dancing with a walker; and Scott, resident choreographer to famed bad director Roger DeBris. We get to see director Susan Stroman coaching and Mel Brooks laughing (or not) at Denman's comic turns. What works? What doesn't? How does all that energy and talent translate into the show you still can't get tickets for?
A Year with The Producers takes us up to Jeffry Denman's big break, when he goes on for Matthew Broderick in the role of Leo Bloom, the nerdy accountant who dreams of being a producer. It's a moment every young actor will read with terror and delight.
A behind-the-scenes story with more than a touch of theatrical magic about it, A Year with The Producers is a book for actors and theater fans everywhere. Contents
Foreword by Matthew Broderick. Cast of Characters. I Have an Audition. The Callback. Cats, backstage. The Closing. A Road Not Taken. Leo Bloom Understudy Audition. First Costume Fitting. First Day of Rehearsal. Satan Enters My Body. End of the First Week. Week Two. Understudy Assignments. Week Three. Trying Things Out. Reality Sets In. Producer Run-Thru. Invited Dress. Chicago. Sitzprobe. Frst Preview - Chicago. Opening Night in Chicago. Final Show in Chicago. Home Again - New York. The Cast Recording. Dress Run. First Preview - New York. Opening Night. Fifteen. Tony, Tony, Tonyyyyyy. Character Assassinations. Three Days to Go. One Day to Go. The Last Entry. Acknowledgements |
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