5 comments about The Devil And Daniel Webster.

1. This book was not what I wanted or expected. I was looking for the short story. What I got was a play.
   What I was looking for was a small booklet with just one or 2 short stories in it including "The Devil and Daniel Webster. I did not want a huge book as I was just going to use the one Benet story in my class. I returned all the copies I purchased and was satisified with the quick action taken. The next time I am looking for something I will check with Amazon again.



2. This lightweight (literally, if not figuratively) story of the hapless farmer Jabez Stone, of Cross Corners, New Hampshire, and his rescue from a cavalier deal with the devil by Daniel Webster is an entertaining, patriotic lark. Although Webster was a lawyer, the narrator tells us, and the "the biggest man...next to God...He never got to be President." Published in 1937, and with a homespun Twain-like love of freedom and the wry vigilance which watches over it, Stephen Vincent Benet's entertaining lark, set "in the border country, where Massachusetts joins Vermont and New Hampshire" is patriotic without being jingoistic or nationalistic. At the end, after the narrator informs us that devil keeps clear of Marshfield and hasn't been seen in New Hampshire he concludes: "I'm not talking about Massachusetts or Vermont."



3. A young nation, built on reason and skepticism, America doesn't have a whole lot of myths and legends. With the possible exception of Parson Weem's tales of
   young George Washington, the stories of Washington Irving, and a few tall tales like Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, and John Henry, the best might be found in Stephen
   Vincent Benet's Faust-influenced but distinctly American short story and screenplay, The Devil and Daniel Webster, which has also been adapted for the stage and
   turned into an opera.

   Jabez Stone of Cross Corners, New Hampshire is a man of little luck, until, with his wife and children ill and a whitlow on his own thumb, he barks :

   I vow it's enough to make a man want to sell his soul to the devill And I would, too, for two cents!

   With that, a stranger appears and Jabez makes a deal, signing it in blood, which changes his luck drastically.

   Over the next ten years, Stone prospers, becoming wealthy and an important man in politics. But with his mortgage to the stranger coming due, Jabez Stone regrets
   the deal he's made and pays a visit to his neighbor, Daniel Webster, of Mansfield, NH--the nation's greatest lawyer and New England's most revered citizen--to see
   if Mr. Webster will take him on as a client and see if there's not some way out of the deal. A lesser man might balk at the prospect of such a fight, but Daniel
   Webster has a special regard for his constituents and cheerfully assures Jabez that they'll prevail :

   For if two New Hampshiremen aren't a match for the devil, we might as well give the country back to the Indians.

   Webster's first ploy is to challenge the stranger's right to prey upon Americans :

   'Mr. Stone is an American citizen, and no American citizen may be forced into the service of a foreign prince. We fought England for that
   in ë12 and weíll fight all hell for it again!'

   'Foreign?' said the stranger. 'And who calls me a foreigner?'

   'Well, I never yet heard of the dev -- of your claiming American citizenship,' said Dan'l Webster with surprise.

   'And who with better right?' said the stranger, with one of his terrible smiles. 'When the first wrong was done to the first Indian, I was there.
   When the first slaver put out for the Congo, I stood on her deck. Am I not in your books and stories and beliefs, from the first settlements on?
   Am I not spoken of, still, in every church in New England? 'Tis true the North claims me for a Southerner, and the South for a Northerner,
   but I am neither. I am merely an honest American like yourself--and of the best descent--for, to tell the truth, Mr. Webster,
   though I don't like to boast of it, my name is older in this country than yours.'

   This prompts Webster to recourse to Stone's rights as an American :

   'Aha!' said Dan'l Webster, with the veins standing out in his forehead. 'Then I stand on the Constitution! I demand a trial for my client!'

   'The case is hardly one for an ordinary court,' said the stranger, his eyes flickering. 'And, indeed, the lateness of the hour-'

   'Let it be any court you choose, so it is an American judge and an American jury!' said Dan'l Webster in his pride.
   'Let it be the quick or the dead; I'll abide the issue!'

   And so begins a trial, presided over by Justice Hathorne, who likewise oversaw the Salem Witch Trials, with a jury made up of the likes of Walter Butler, Simon
   Girty, King Philip, Reverend John Smeet, and Morton of Merry Mount. Inevitably, even these dastards are swayed by the rhetorical power of Daniel Webster and
   Jabez is released from his contract. The stranger good-naturedly conceding :

   'Perhaps 'tis not strictly in accordance with the evidence,' he said, 'but even the damned may salute the eloquence of Mr. Webster.'

   Despite this graciousness, Daniel Webster grabs and threatens him, but then relents to his pleading. In exchange for being let go, the stranger predicts Webster's
   future for him. The stranger well knows of Webster's desire to be president one day and of his pride in his speaking ability. He warns that the dream will never come
   true and, perversely, the ambition will be thwarted by Webster's own talent :

   '[T]he last great speech you make will turn many of your own against you,' said the stranger. 'They will call you Ichabod; they will call you
   by other names. Even in New England some will say you have turned your coat and sold your country, and their voices will be loud against
   you till you die.'

   Webster takes the news surpassing well and in turn receives an assurance :

   'So it is an honest speech, it does not matter what men say,' said Dan'l Webster. Then he looked at the stranger and their glances locked.

   'One question,' he said. 'I have fought for the Union all my life. Will I see that fight won against those who would tear it apart?'

   'Not while you live,' said the stranger, grimly, 'but it will be won. And after you are dead, there are thousands who will fight for your cause,
   because of words that you spoke."

   'Why, then, you long-barreled, slab-sided, lantern-jawed, fortune-telling note shaver!' said Dan'l Webster, with a great roar of laughter,
   'be off with you to your own place before I put my mark on you! For, by the thirteen original colonies, I'd go to the Pit itself to save the Union!'

   Sure enough, Webster's great speech in favor of the Missouri Compromise in 1850 would ensure its passage but with its provision for admitting a new slave state to
   the Union would make him anathema to hardcore abolitionists and doom his presidential hopes.

   Benet helped adapt this story for the screen and it made for one of the really underrated great American films. With sterling performances by Edward Arnold as
   Webster and Walter Huston as the stranger, here called Mr. Scratch, the middle portion of the story, detailing Jabez Stone's rising fortunes and declining character,
   is greatly expanded. This is problematic because James Craig as Jabez is pretty nondescript, but Jane Darwell as his mother and Simone Simon as a sultry vixen who
   becomes the Stone's housemaid help to carry us through until the trial starts.

   One interesting aspect of Benet's tale is his refusal to let his countrymen off the hook; the Devil is obviously integral to the American experience and though Webster
   matches the Devil in the end, he too hears the siren call of Mr. Scratch. In the end though Webster is redeemed by his all consuming love of the nation :

   And they say that if you go to his grave and speak loud and clear, 'Dan'l Webster--Dan'l Webster!' the ground'll begin to shiver and the trees
   begin to shake. And after a while you'll hear a deep voice saying. 'Neighbor, how stands the Union?' Then you better answer the Union stands
   as she stood, rock-bottomed and copper-sheathed, one and indivisible, or he's liable to rear right out of the ground.

   What a worthy legend for America and for one of the greatest of her citizens.

   GRADE : A




4. Daniel Webster might be a Yankee New Englander, a politician and peddlar. This fictious short story by Stephen Benet utilizes a great American statesmen in a great legal case, albeit a fictious one. I first read this in the 8th grade for a book report. It stands out as an entertaining classic of American literature. I also recommend books by James Fennimore Cooper.



5. This book is incredibly hard to find---Amazon was, as, usual, the only place that had it for me. I was dying to read the story that sparked the movie, "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." About seven mountain men who go down to town to git themselves thar brides! I really enjoyed Benet's style; I was completely unfamiliar with his writing previously. I also read "The Devil and Daniel Webster," included, which seems to be the most popular of his writings. It was a good tale. Interesting author, interesting writings. I'm donating my copy to the library; their Benet listings are sadly lacking! Everyone needs a little "backwoodsman" in their lives!

5 comments about Second Act Trouble: Behind the Scenes at Broadway's Big Musical Bombs.

1. This book, while interesting in its subject matter, is not an easy read as stated by an earlier reviewer. It is sometimes dry and rather longwinded in spots. It does provide information to a reader why many shows were not the successes their creators and producers hoped them to be.
   
   A much more entertaining and fascinating book on the same subject is Ken Mandelbaum's NOT SINCE CARRIE: Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops. It is a reference tool, which I own, that I go back to quite often. Second Act Trouble was a book I borrowed from the public library. I am glad I read it, and I found it worthy of my time to have completed it. I enjoyed learning some new facts like Louis Jourdan was the original male lead in ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER, or that there was a brief thought of pairing up Ethel Merman and Mary Martin in 1973 for a musical comedy version of ARSENIC AND OLD LACE with a score by Rodgers and Harnick. However, Not Since Carrie has much more of a personal touch to it. It's like you're sitting down for coffee with Ken himself.
   
   But this is a review for Second Act Trouble, not Not since Carrie. In the end, I recommend this book. However, just be aware that this look at flop musicals is a bit dull in spots and not as exciting as it could have been.
   
   Read both of the books, and decide for yourself.



2. This 2006 compendium of articles about problem musicals that fell apart on or near Broadway isn't a turkey on the order of "Kelly" or Jerry Lewis's revival of "Hellzapoppin", two of the 25 productions detailed inside. It's just misshapen and frustratingly incomplete.
   
   For example, I'm not sure why Steven Suskin's name is on the spine of this book and Lewis H. Lapham's isn't. The Harper's editor has more to say in this book than Suskin does, as Lapham wrote a long piece on "Kelly" for the Saturday Evening Post back in 1965 which Suskin reprints at full length, covering 40 pages in all.
   
   Other sections consist of shorter articles, from the New York Times, New York magazine, and other sources, detailing aspects of other failed productions often written just after or shortly before the play flopped. Suskin's contributions, here and elsewhere, consist entirely of brief introductions and often-snarky asides bracketed into the text.
   
   "...[I]t struck me that these yellowing accounts - mostly from daily newspapers and weekly magazines, which went out-of-print the day or week after they were published - tell pretty convincing tales in themselves. Why not gather the best of them together, and put them in context, I wondered? Thus, 'Second Act Trouble'."
   
   Suskin's idea of context is well on the spare side, though. He doesn't add much of anything about the musicals themselves. Were the songs bad? Was the acting at fault? Did it fail to find an audience? If the original author didn't say anything (and many of them focus as much on the money or key individuals behind the production as on the shows themselves), then Suskin doesn't, either, except to say whether the show was a "total", "partial", or "substantial" loss. It's a big hole, but not the only one in "Second Act Trouble."
   
   Another abscess comes in the form of the musicals selected. They are a fairly narrow selection, all but three from the 1960s and 1970s. Many feature the same composers and producers. One producer, David Merrick, the famously shameless "Abominable Showman" and Suskin's one-time employer, shows up in nearly half the pieces.
   
   Merrick makes for great copy, especially when he promotes "Subways Are For Sleeping" by getting a group of people who happened to have the same names as the New York theater critics of the time and producing an ad with their "raves" for the show. Alas, I learned more about Merrick reading this book than I did about how a musical may find itself on the Great Wrong Way.
   
   It's too bad Suskin couldn't stir himself to do anything more with his materials. Even the illustrations reveal a lack of effort: Playbill covers and handbills for the shows constitute most of the art; with very few vintage photos.
   
   It takes gall to publish a book with other people's thoughts and words and present it as one's own work; even more to make the subject one highlighting other people's failures. Merrick would be proud of his pupil. But this is one show you are better off skipping.



3. I couldn't put it down and if this book had just collected only Lewis Lapham's long, long, "new journalism" article on the disastrous Moose Charnap flop KELLY! it would be worth buying. Lapham spares nobody and takes no prisoners and he got everyone to go on record about Ella Logan who must have been a termagant beyond compare. The producers let her go because they couldn't stand her continual "vulgarity" of all things. Kindly old Mel Brooks comes in, takes a look at her, and says, "Fire her." Sadly she had once been a great Broadway star, the original Sharon in FINIAN'S RAINBOW, now reduced to playing mothers (in 1965). Wonder if she's still with us, Suskin might have played fair and allowed us to air her grievances against the horrid KELLY! people. Oh well, SECOND ACT TROUBLE garners one great story after another, and I can't really say which one I like the best. Great monsters always make fantastic reading, and Jerry Lewis in HELLZAPOPPIN is right up there with Hitler and Stalin! There's one part where--he hates Lynn Redgrave--he has to rehearse a song with her, and he refuses to stand up while she's onstage with him so she's forced to sing while he sings with her lying flat on his back on the ground. Oh my, but after a few more chapters of this sort of behavior you begin to feel that being evil is necessary to make it on Broadway, and the squeaky wheels make the most noise.
   
   Steven Suskin has an elastic sense of what shows are hits and which are flops, and some of the shows he covers in this book I was surprised to see he called flops. Some were critical darlings, some were pure spectacle, and some notorious flops like CARRIE aren't covered here. There are many occasions to wonder. Would HALLELUJAH BABY have been a hit if Lena Horne had played in it? I don't think so. Could Jerry Orbach have saved MACK AND MABEL? Who knows at this late date. Could Liv Ullmann be as horrid and egotistical as she is painted here, on the payroll of I REMEMBER MAMA? There goes another illusion shattered.
   
   The book reveals that during the out of town tryouts for KWAMINA Star Sally Ann Howes had an affair with her co-star, and that this behavior was nothing new for Sally Ann for she had previously (a few months before) cheated on her husband, songwriter Richard Adler) with German heartthrob Maxmilian Schell backstage on the sets of a John Frankenheimer telefilm. I didn't even know who Sally Ann Howes is and I'm still enthralled! Adler eventually comes to forgive Howes in the long decades since, and she seems like an admirable woman in many ways, leaving her home to come back to NY and nurse Adler's son in the final months of his tragic illness. Good for you, Sally Ann, I like a woman who goes after what she wants, why, that's what made me a musical queen to begin with.



4. I was extremely disapointed with this book, having read most of the essays contained therein from other sources.



5. i read this book and after i finished it, i felt i had enjoyed it. but when i went to purchase it, i couldn't remember the name of it.
   
   then, i was asked by more than a few people for a recommendation of a good book. and i would describe this one but not be able to catch the name for the life of me. and i wondered if it was me, or the title.
   
   well, part of it is the title. it explains what the book is about but doesn't capture the humor of its subject matter or the acerbic prose used by suskin.
   
   and then of course, is that snappy, light, humorous tone. it's fine for a start but then, i didn't stay invited in the book. i read it quickly because i wanted to see the other musicals for this perspective. but then i realized i can't tell you very much about the shows.
   
   and after a moment or two, i can't even tell you any insightful line that suskin wrote about the shows. just that tone--light-hearted, well-researched but not probing or enlightening.

No comments about Actor's Choice: Monologues for Women (Actor's Choice).

2 comments about Barfly - The Movie.

1. The movie "BarFly" is based on three days on author's Charles Bukowski's life when he was 29 years old. I have seen this movie numerous times (at least 50) and still get something new out of each time. One of my buddies once said of the movie, "I felt like taking a shower after watching Barfly." Exactly!!! While some may find it too gritty, I find the movie an honest look at a troubled man's life. Henry Chinaski is like you or me but he is a raving alcoholic. There is a sweetness to him that comes out throughout the film and that is what I see and what I like to focus on. He finds his match in Wanda, also an alcoholic, and together they try and make an honest go of their reltionship. What follows is drunken mistakes and a bond that is held together by a Scotch and water. There is a purity and beauty to their relationship and it is evident that they truly care for one another but problems arise because of their drinking. To me Henry is an almost "Buddah" like character who lives in the moment and dosen't seem to hold too many regrets about his life. I admire his honesty and generosity throughout the movie. At first glance you may say he is out for himself but if you really watch old Henry you'll see flashes of kindness and sweetness. He's a man who dosen't seem to fit in to 9-5p.m. society and he makes no excuses for it, or as Jim the bartender said to Lilly the barfly, "he's as right as any of us." Keep an eye out for Bukowski himself who has a cameo in the film, a bar scene where Henry and Wanda first meet. I lived in L.A. for 10 years and have been by some of Bukowski's old haunts and the film captures the "working man's" bar scene in L.A. These types of places exist, you just have to do a little searching to find them. Henry Chinaski is a beautiful man in an ugly world. I highly recommend Barfly and suggest you view it with an open mind and an open heart. As Henry says in the last scene of the movie as he buys the bar numerous rounds of drinks, "to all my friends, to all my friends." If you would like a look at an honest, but troubled, man's life I highly suggest you check out the movie "Barfly."



2. or at the very least rent it. It's great-if you like buk. if not you'll probably hate it, my girlfreind did. There's a two second shot of the man himself sitting in the bar drinking and looking all grizzled(he talks about this in HOLLYWOOD). one complaint-Frank Stalone!

3 comments about Four by Sondheim (A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum).

1. The scrips are just like what you would get if you cot just one. more than 600 pages of pure script. I love it!



2. This book is amazing. It has almost everything that you could want in a book like this. What does it include do you ask? WELL! It includes the scripts to A Funny Thing happened on the way to the Forum, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Tood, and Sunday in the Park With George. In addition to that it also has Original Hirschfeld drawings, Lyrics to cut songs and where they would go in the script, Costume Designs, Production Photos, Cast Lists from Original, Touring and Revival Casts, and also the discography for each of the shows. My only question... Where is volume two??? I would like to see the following shows put into a collaborative edition like this: Into the Woods, Assassins, Company and Follies. WOOO Amazing and entertaining. Recommend this to all musical lovers everywhere!



3. While I have all four of these books in Paperback and therefore have had no need to buy this book I have looked through this book and I think buying this one is a MUCH better idea than buying them seperately. This book includes pictures, Drawings by Al Hirschfield, Cut-Lyrics and more. All four of the shows are purely genius and provide you with laughter while provoking thoughts. This is a must for all Sondheim fans and musical fans and anyone interested in 4 great shows: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sunday in the Park With George,Sweeny Todd, and A Little Night Music.

No comments about Isadora Duncan: A Graphic Biography.

2 comments about Intimate Apparel.

1. I was lucky enough to have played a character in this play with one of the local theaters in my community. I played Mayme, the world weary prostitute, customer and fair weather friend of the lead character, Esther. When I first read this script,I thought it was beautifully written and I felt the characters were well developed. We played to packed houses and received glowing reviews. In fact, the young lady who played Esther in our production won a best actress award at the local level. I think that Lynn Nottage's play is a wonderful theatrical piece and I am honored to have been apart of it. I encourage others to not only read the play but see a production of it; I guarantee you will not regret it.



2. Born in 1964 Brooklyn, Lynn Nottage is an up-and-coming playwright whose works generally mingle the African-American experience with a feminist point of view. To date her single best-known work is the 2003 play INTIMATE APPAREL, a play about 1900-era seamstress Esther.
   
   Self-concious about her plainess and socially insecure even among her own class, Esther dreams of romance and marriage while earning her living by creating beautiful undergarments for a clientel that ranges from rich and disillusioned white women to hard-knocks prostitutes. Along the way she also falls in love with a fabric dealer, and he with her--but racial and religious taboos render the relationship impossible.
   
   Esther consequently turns to romance-by-mail, writing and receiving letters from a laborer at work on the Panama Canal--a romance complicated by the fact that she can neither read nor write and must rely on friends to assist her. But when Esther ultimately marries her man-by-mail, she quickly discovers that he is not what seemed to be, and the play ends in a series of complications that have the effect of returning Esther to square one in more ways than one.
   
   INTIMATE APPAREL is most successful as a character study and as a portrait of the era in which Esther lives; Nottage is a remarkably graceful writer and successfully evocative of tremendous poignancy. At the same time, however, INTIMATE APPAREL strikes me as the sort of play that receives glowing reviews and goes on to play to half-empty houses: although the characters are brilliantly rendered, the actual story is somewhat weak, and it seems to lack dramatic depth and purpose. But Nottage is most certainly a writer to watch, and I'm betting this is far from the best she has to offer in the future.
   
   GFT, Amazon Reviewer

5 comments about Martha Graham: A Dancer's Life.

1. It's a great book, I read it for my book report book, and i just absolutely loved it! It's great for kids over 9+. It teaches you the whole life story, and some people she worked with, including Liza Minnely, and Madonna. And her whole family, to her dad, mom, sisters, to her nanny, look inside this book for another persons life, that you just get lost in, when i read it, i thought i was there.
   Hope Ya Read It!!!!!
   Thanks.



2. This book is a beautiful, concise study of her life. Studying Martha Graham's life is an awakening experience. Reading Graham's memoir "Blood Memory" simultaneously provides a beautiful counterpoint, knowing the subject will not observe herself in the same way as her biographer.

   I dance away from this book with a definite appreciation for Graham's brilliance in creativity and willingness to navigate the many rough patches she encountered AND give such a gift to humanity at the same time.

   The numbers of influential people she touched is amazing and enlightening.

   I suggest this book for any creative thinker: there are applications for all of us.




3. Martha Graham: A Dancers Life by Russell Freedman, the full-length biography of Martha Graham, takes a deep look into Martha and the peole around her. She was a dancer, teacher, and choreographer who changed the world. Her life began in Pittsburg where she was born in 1894. The book also tells about the lives of her dancers, students, close friends, and lovers. The biography goes into great detail up until the day she died in 1991.
   I liked this book because of all the details it gives about her life and the way it tells about all the heroic things she did. I would recommend this book to dancers and people who enjoy the things Martha did in her 97 years of life.



4. I bought this book after reading an interesting article about Martha Graham in the New Yorker about a year ago. I was attracted to the book by the beautiful photography, in evidence on the cover (and throughout the book, as I soon learned). However, I was interested in reading about Martha's "demons" and character flaws, as well as her relationships and focus on archetypal figures in dance. Unfortunately, this book is a pretty happy-go-lucky, bland account of her life. In fact, it's so bland that I would have given it three stars if the pictures in it were not so beautiful and well-suited to the descriptions given in the text.



5. This is a wonderful book and story. Being a dancer myself, I am very inspired. You'll enjoy Martha's "positive" attitude and wit throughout this story of the growth of a piece of history. Please, read this book, I recommend it!

4 comments about The Definitive Broadway Collection (Definitive Collections).

1. Terrific book of Broadway favorites. Bought it for my teenage daughter and she loved it!



2. The first edition has 27 more songs than the second one(which I bought). I was a little dissappointed.



3. THIS BOOK IS THE GREATEST COLLECTION OF BROADWAY CLASSICS I HAVE EVER PURCHASED. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE THE LIST OF SONGS, GO TO ... AND SEARCH FOR THE TITLE. THE BINDING IS A SPIRAL BINDING WHICH HAS THE TENDANCY TO FALL APART AFTER USE (I SPEAK FROM EXPERIENCE). IT HAS MANY OF THE POPULAR THEMES FROM CLASSIC BROADWAY SHOWS AND THERE ARE GOOD ARRANGEMENTS OF MOST OF THESE SONGS. I WOULD SAY IT IS AN SLIGHTLY ADVANCED PIANO LEVEL. I USE THE BOOK FOR THEATRE ORGAN AND THERE'S PLENTY OF SPOTS FOR IMPROVISING AND REARRANGING. I DON'T KNOW OF A BETTER BOOK OF BROADWAY CLASSICS IN PUBLICATION, SO I GIVE IT A 4 OUT OF 5 (BECAUSE OF THE BINDING PROBLEM I HAD)



4. I bought this book years ago on the request of my vocal coach. It has proved to include most of the classic songs from broadway that a singer in the musical theatre could hope for. A few downfalls are that the more obscure songs are not likely to be found in this collection, and songs from more recent productions are not included. I think Les Miserables is the most current inclusion in this collection. To conclude, however, this is a great source for all the traditional great broadway classics, and I would highly reccomend it.

No comments about The Director's Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre.