"Americans love musicals. Americans invented musicals. Americans perfected musicals. But what, exactly, is a musical? In [this book], Jack Viertel takes them apart, puts them back together, sings their praises, marvels at their unflagging inventiveness, and occasionally despairs over their more embarrassing shortcomings. In the process, he invites us to fall in love all over again by showing us how musicals happen, what makes them work, how they captivate...

"A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the iconic Broadway musical Sunday in the Park with George"-- In 1982 Lapine, at the beginning of his career as a playwright and director, met Stephen Sondheim, nineteen years his senior and already a legendary Broadway composer and lyricist. Shortly thereafter, the two decided to write a musical inspired by Georges Seurat's nineteenth-century painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte....

"Melody McIntyre, stage manager extraordinaire, has a plan for everything. What she doesn't have? Success with love. Every time she falls for someone during a school performance, both the romance and the show end in catastrophe. So, Mel swears off any entanglements until their upcoming production of Les Mis is over. Of course, Mel didn't count on Odile Rose, rising star in the acting world, auditioning for the spring performance. And she definitely...

The story of a romantic triangle between two top players, an American and a Russian, in a world chess championship, and a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other, all in the context of the Cold War struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union.

After moving across the country, thirteen-year-old Natalie auditions for her new school's play and overcomes her fears and insecurities about performing in a wheelchair.

Broadway musical loosely based on the life of artist Georges Seurat.