This is a series of twenty-one chatty interviews, by theater journalist Eddie Shapiro, conducted from 2008 through 2012. He began with the late Elaine Stritch and Carol Channing and worked his way to Sutton Foster and Laura Benanti, with stops along the way for Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, and Idina Menzel, plus many others. If you enjoy musical theater, you’ll be entertained by this collection…and the photos are fun too.
Roughly ten years have passed since the book's initial publication, and it's time for an update, along with some more interviews. Certainly Bernadette Peters is a major omission, and he could add additional profiles for Lea Salonga, Sara Bareilles, and Kelli O'Hara, to name just a few.
When I'm feeling nostalgic, I like to flip through my collection of Playbill theater programs, remembering performers who might have appeared as an unknown and later became famous – one great example is Glenn Close, who appeared as the opera singer Jenny Lind in "Barnum" around 1980, making her singing debut. It's also bittersweet to consider performers (in plays and musicals), who have passed on, including such luminaries as Lena Horne, Madeline Kahn and Gilda Radner – so grateful to have seen them all.
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