Broadway Babies Say Goodnight

Mark Steyn is a columnist for Britain's Daily Telegraph and Canada's National Post. He is theatre critic of The New Criterion, North American correspondent of The Spectator, and also contributes to The Wall Street Journal and The American Spectator. A Canadian citizen, he lives in New Hampshire and Québec.

"A columnist and critic offers an irreverent history of the Broadway musical, a diverse and lively art form that, judging from the flood of revivals these days, may be in its death throes. Broadway Babies is an eccentric, funny, shrewd and somewhat dismaying book." -- St. Paul Pioneer Press
"Wise but wicked in his analysis...Steyn leaves no turn unstoned...At last, a book of theater criticism with real teeth; it may rankle, but it never bores." -- Out Magazine
"[B]rilliantly opinionated British critic [Mark Steyn] knows the history of Broadway (and West End) musicals, and he makes us care that the current crop lacks conviction and craft. He excoriates meretricious gimmicks and he makes us yearn for shows that are authentic and believable because they are rooted in the human experience." -- Wall Street Journal
"Broadway Babies offers an unapologetically anecdotal and extremely personal account of musical theatre from The Black Crook (1866) to Rent (1996). With an emphasis on the last seventy years, Steyn charts the musical's highs, lows, and the banalities in-between, and he raises provocative questions about the future of the form. His discussion is peppered with observations from individuals associated with the most sublime - as well as the most ridiculous - shows ever produced, and he fearlessly takes on some of the sacred deities of the musical theatre. For even the most casual musical devotee, Broadway Babies will surely provoke, frustrate, and occasionally entertain." -- Broadside
"Steyn on Broadway is a very compelling autopsy report." -- Booklist 4/99
"...this delighful, irreverent romp through seven decades of American musical theater...a spontaneous mix of vibrating history, juicy gossip, plot and song analysis and pungent criticm..." -- Publishers Weekly
"Steyn is, alongside John Lahr of The New Yorker, the best working critic of my lifetime...This is the funniest, most vital, admirable, irritating, true and false account of the musical theatre ever published." -- Sheridan Morley, London Sunday Times
"Totally different and engrossing, this study is an important addition to the literature." -- Choice
"The critic Mark Steyn probably knows as much about musical theatre as anyone who has ever worked in that maddening field. In fact, I suspect he knows more... This is as unblinkered a history of musicals as has ever been written." -- Tim Rice, The Daily Telegraph

Part 1 Overture: The Fix; Act One; Chapter 1 The Op’nin’; Chapter 2 The Show; Chapter 3 The Music; Chapter 4 The Lyrics; Chapter 5 The Book; Chapter 6 The Jews; Chapter 7 The Cues; Chapter 8 The Take-Home Tune; Chapter 9 The Property; Chapter 10 The Genius; Part 3 Intermission: The Real World; Act Two; Chapter 11 The Brits; Chapter 12 The Line; Chapter 13 The Fags; Chapter 14 The Rock; Chapter 15 The Jokes; Chapter 16 The Star; Chapter 17 The Flops; Chapter 18 The Depilators; Chapter 19 The Maximalist; Chapter 20 The FuturePart 5 Exit Music: The Survivor;