The difficulty for a modern star in Gypsy today is the competition with a ghost-Ethel Merman's, to be exact. It's no longer a case of making the role Mama Rose credible in all her volcano-force anomalies-of making her seem crazy yet funny, pitiful, and savage, sinner, and sinned against. She is downright interesting in her own right and in Arthur Laurent's writing, only a sub-par actress would fail to capitalize on that interest.

The latest installment in the widely successful 'Making of The Great Broadway Musicals' series.This book goes behind the scenes of the making of original Broadway Production in 1950.

West Side Story was a landmark musical. When it premiered on Broadway in 1957, it showed how dancing, singing, acting, and design could merge into a single means of expression, a seamless unity. Whether it was completely new vision as a concept musical, or the pinnacle of an already established tradition, it marked the most impressive body of choreography in a single show and was acclaimed as Leonard Bernstein's strongest work for the Broadway stage.