Making It on Broadway: Actors' Tales of Climbing to the Top - Softcover

From first stepping foot in New York City with only a suitcase and a dream, to stepping up to the podium and accepting a Tony AwardŽ, the actors in this book discuss all aspects of their lives and careers. No matter how personal or controversial the topic, they tell it like it is, how it was, and how it’s possibly going to be. Whether it’s paying the rent, maintaining a family, performing eight times a week, or dealing with the "Disneyfication" of Broadway, the contributors to this book handle it all in the same way: with frankness and humor.

MAKING IT ON BROADWAY is not a book about musical theater. Rather, it is a book about those who have dreamed of a life on Broadway and pursued those dreams - and the reality which waits once those dreams are fulfilled. Over the past several years, much of the intimacy which once existed on Broadway has been lost. Today, Times Square has a theme park quality to it, and, more than ever, Broadway is becoming an industry as opposed to an art form. Unlike other theater books, MAKING IT ON BROADWAY addresses these seismic changes in an honest and forthright manner through the voices of those who have lived it and are living it today.

What are some of the more controversial aspects of this book?

There are many within the Broadway community who are very protective of its secrets. As Antonio Banderas explains, "it is good for the audience to think that we are glamorous...we want to entertain and pretend to be a certain way." There is no pretending in this book. Here, performers speak out and tell it like it is. In addition to going deep into the private lives of performers, the book addresses how actors have been marginalized by corporate theater. In the chapter "The Base of the Tony is Plastic," Tony winners and nominees speak candidly about the real worth of a Tony Award. In the chapter "Broadway, Inc.," actors talk about the games they play on stage during a Broadway show to keep themselves "entertained." As one contributor from The Lion King explains, if people knew the messing around which occurs on stage, they would be "blown away." This book tells the audience what, until now, only some actors within the Broadway community had previously known. Among the many controversial issues addressed, performers reflect on how there is actually peer pressure not to act when performing on a Broadway stage. They explain why, even after getting cast as a lead in a new Broadway show, they know that, once the show closes, they may never work on Broadway again.