How Does the Show Go On? by Thomas Schumacher

How Does the Show Go On? An Introduction to the Theatre
by Thomas Schumacher [j792.02 Sch] 

Having grown up in a theatre family (my Dad was a theatre-professor at Nebraska Wesleyan University), and having been active in my high school theatre program, a lot traditional theatre “lingo” was familiar to me as a kid and teenager. I went over thirty years before finding my way back into theatrical productions locally, and this handy and profusely illustrated little volume would have been very helpful in refreshing my memory about a lot of little details about how a theatre is run, and how theatrical productions are staged.

Written by Broadway producer Thomas Schumacher (The Lion King, and others), this colorful volume is organized in easily-readable format, and features hundreds of photos from several different theatrical productions, to explain everything from “Front of House/Back of House” to “fly systems” to “in the round” to “stage managers” to how big shows are publicized. It’s all very entertaining, but despite Schumacher’s connections to the big Disney stage musicals, I would have appeciated a more varied set of examples than just the handful of shows Schumacher happened to have personal experiences with. None-the-less, for anyone who’s new to the behind-the-scenes world of stage shows — both musical and non-musical — this is a nice introductory volume with helpful illustrations.

[ Publisher’s official How Does the Show Go On? web site ] | [ Wikipedia page for Thomas Schumacher ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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