BooksDirect

Description - Closer than Ever: The Unique Six-Decade Songwriting Partnership of Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire by Joshua Rosenblum

How do musical theater songs actually get written? What enables some composer and lyricist partnerships to last for decades?Composer David Shire and lyricist Richard Maltby, Jr., two of the most gifted songwriters of our time, are revered among musical theater lovers for their ground-breaking off-Broadway revues Starting Here, Starting Now and Closer Than Ever, as well as for the Broadway musicals Baby and
Big. Rosenblum sets out to increase appreciation for Maltby and Shire's large and impressive body of work and establish their place in musical theater history. This book chronicles their sixty-six-year (and counting) partnership, giving
full behind-the-scenes accounts of their musicals, interspersed with deep-dive analyses of standout individual numbers. Other well-known artistic figures who feature prominently in the Maltby/Shire story include Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince, Michael Stewart, Francis Ford Coppola, Craig Lucas, Mike Ockrent, Susan Stroman, John Weidman, Charles Strouse, Garth Drabinsky, Adam Gopnik, Jason Robert Brown, and Jonathan Tunick. Using his experiences as a Broadway conductor, music
journalist, and professor of musical theater composition, as well as his long-term personal and professional acquaintance with both Maltby and Shire, Joshua Rosenblum is uniquely suited to chronicle
their lives, careers, and creative output. The songwriters, both of whom are engaging and articulate in describing what they do, are quoted liberally throughout the book in exclusive interviews, creating the impression that one is spending time with two inspiring creative artists who happen to be great company.

Buy Closer than Ever: The Unique Six-Decade Songwriting Partnership of Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire by Joshua Rosenblum from Australia's Online Independent Bookstore, BooksDirect.

A Preview for this title is currently not available.