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Here's to the Ladies: Conversations with More of the Great Women of Musical Theater
A fascinating look at the careers of some of Broadway's greatest female performers in their own words
In Here's to the Ladies, the follow-up to Nothing Like a Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater, theatre journalist Eddie Shapiro sits down for intimate, career-encompassing conversations with yet more of Broadway's most prolific and fascinating leading women.
Full of detailed stories and reflections, his conversations with such luminaries as Barbara Cook, Kelli O'Hara, Heather Headley, Faith Prince, Stephanie J. Block, Tonya Pinkins, and a host of others dig deep into each actor's career -together, these chapters tell the story of what it means to be a leading lady on Broadway over the past fifty years.
Alan Cumming described Nothing Like a Dame as ?an encyclopedia of modern musical theatre via a series of tender meetings between a diehard fan and his idols. Because of Eddie Shapiro's utter guilelessness, these women open up and reveal more than they ever have before, and we get to be the third guest at each encounter.? This new volume brings more fly-on-the-wall opportunities for fans to savour, students to study, and even the unindoctrinated to understand the life of the performing artist.
In Here's to the Ladies, the follow-up to Nothing Like a Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater, theatre journalist Eddie Shapiro sits down for intimate, career-encompassing conversations with yet more of Broadway's most prolific and fascinating leading women.
Full of detailed stories and reflections, his conversations with such luminaries as Barbara Cook, Kelli O'Hara, Heather Headley, Faith Prince, Stephanie J. Block, Tonya Pinkins, and a host of others dig deep into each actor's career -together, these chapters tell the story of what it means to be a leading lady on Broadway over the past fifty years.
Alan Cumming described Nothing Like a Dame as ?an encyclopedia of modern musical theatre via a series of tender meetings between a diehard fan and his idols. Because of Eddie Shapiro's utter guilelessness, these women open up and reveal more than they ever have before, and we get to be the third guest at each encounter.? This new volume brings more fly-on-the-wall opportunities for fans to savour, students to study, and even the unindoctrinated to understand the life of the performing artist.
425 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 8, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 26, 2024
This is actually the second volume, and I have not read the first, but the deal is some of the grande dames of Broadway share their stories, methods, processes. Eddie Shapiro asks in depth questions and the women go deep and it made me want to get on stage again, but it did not make me like Patti Lupone, and she wasn't even one of the interviewees.
August 10, 2024
a literal textbook. give me five more. this is part of MY pseudo-bfa!
January 6, 2026
Books like "Here's to the Ladies" can be problematic. You learn too much about performers you enjoy and then you don't see them the same way again. Some of my favorite interviews are from performers that I have never particularly enjoyed onstage.
Eddie Shapiro, the interviewer of these ladies, is very good at getting them to reveal more than they realize they are revealing about themselves. Some are very honest about their collaborators, so honest it is difficult to imagine they will ever work together again. Others are far more cagey about their experiences, using neutral language that probably masks a negative experience.
The most jaw-dropping moment is Tonya Pinkins revealing that she told Toni Collette in "The Wild Party" she was the reason the show didn't work. Kelli O'Hara, on the other hand, emerges as very PC, almost parroting corporate language on diversity. She is one of the more opaque of the interviewees. My favorite performer among all the ladies is perhaps Melissa Errico, but she is very full of herself in her interview. If you have ever seen Errico in cabaret, you know she likes to hear the sound of her own voice.
The most moving section concerns Marin Mazzie in which others, including her husband, discuss her career. You can feel the love all these people felt for Mazzie. I loved seeing her onstage, and her performance in "Ragtime"is still so vivid in my memory.
All the interviews are worth reading. I read other things as I dipped into and out of it.
Eddie Shapiro, the interviewer of these ladies, is very good at getting them to reveal more than they realize they are revealing about themselves. Some are very honest about their collaborators, so honest it is difficult to imagine they will ever work together again. Others are far more cagey about their experiences, using neutral language that probably masks a negative experience.
The most jaw-dropping moment is Tonya Pinkins revealing that she told Toni Collette in "The Wild Party" she was the reason the show didn't work. Kelli O'Hara, on the other hand, emerges as very PC, almost parroting corporate language on diversity. She is one of the more opaque of the interviewees. My favorite performer among all the ladies is perhaps Melissa Errico, but she is very full of herself in her interview. If you have ever seen Errico in cabaret, you know she likes to hear the sound of her own voice.
The most moving section concerns Marin Mazzie in which others, including her husband, discuss her career. You can feel the love all these people felt for Mazzie. I loved seeing her onstage, and her performance in "Ragtime"is still so vivid in my memory.
All the interviews are worth reading. I read other things as I dipped into and out of it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews