Overview

Putting It Together chronicles the two-year odyssey of creating the iconic Broadway musical Sunday in the Park with George. In 1982, James Lapine, at the beginning of his career as a playwright and director, met Stephen Sondheim, nineteen years his senior and already a legendary Broadway composer and lyricist. Shortly thereafter, the two decided to write a musical inspired by Georges Seurat's nineteenth-century painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Through conversations between Lapine and Sondheim, as well as most of the production team, the two Broadway icons lift the curtain on their beloved musical. Putting It Together is a deeply personal remembrance of their collaboration and friendship and the highs and lows of that journey, one that resulted in the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic.

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9781665085403

Table of Contents

Reviews

""[A] fascinating and rigorous, no-punches-pulled investigation into what surely must be one of the most unlikely and chaotic journeys to a Pulitzer Prize and a place in the highest echelons of the American musical theater canon."" -- ""New York Times Book Review"" ""A fascinating 360-degree panorama of showbiz at its most intense and creative."" -- ""Publishers Weekly"" ""Capture[s] the painstaking, bit-by-bit, piece-by-piece energy of creating a new musical...I didn't read this book: I inhaled it. "" -- ""Lin-Manuel Miranda, actor, playwright, and New York Times bestselling author"" ""Narrator Adam Grupper is impressive as he portrays writer-director James Lapine...Alyssa Bresnahan, Eva Kaminsky, T. Ryder Smith, and Graham Winton provide the voices for those interviewed...Len Cariou portrays a raspy-voiced Sondheim...A perfect fit for audio. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award."" -- ""AudioFile"" ""Paints a vivid portrait of a bygone era...[and] offers plenty of gossip for those seeking it."" -- ""Rolling Stone"" ""The richest backstage memoir I know that concentrates on the work itself."" -- ""Wall Street Journal"" ""Wonderful...a primer on everything that goes into making a musical, from costuming to orchestrating."" -- ""Newsweek""

Author Information

James Lapine is a preeminent director, playwright, screenwriter, and librettist. He is the recipient of three Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical--for Passion, Falsettos, Into the Woods-- as well as nine Tony Award nominations, five Drama Desk Awards, a Pulitzer Prize in Drama, and a Peabody Award, among other honors. He has been inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame and is a recipient of the Mr. Abbott Award for lifetime achievement in theater. Adam Grupper is a voice artist and actor. His audiobook narrations have earned six Earphones Awards and a nomination in 2008 for the prestigious Audie Award. He has appeared on Broadway, in television series, and in major motion pictures. Alyssa Bresnahan is a dynamic dancer, actor, and audiobook narrator. She has narrated over two hundred audiobooks, has earned twenty Earphones Awards, and was named one of AudioFile magazine's Golden Voices. In 2009 she was a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for best fiction narration. She has toured Europe in stage productions of several Greek dramas. In the United States, she appeared as Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire and as Nina in The Seagull. At the New York Stage and Film Festival, she had the starring role in The Clearing. Eva Kaminsky is a narrator and actor based in New York City. A 2014 Audie nominee, she has recorded approximately 150 audiobooks in genres ranging from romance to mysteries and children's stories. She can also be heard on many television and radio ads, and is currently the voice for Intel's Real Sense line. Her film and television credits include Billions, Blindspot, Mysteries of Laura, Chicago Med, and Law & Order: SVU. Eva has performed on stage both on and Off-Broadway as well as around the country, and feels very lucky to get to tell stories in so many different mediums. Len Cariou is a distinguished stage, television, film actor, and award-winning audiobook narrator. His narrations have won two AudioFile Earphones Awards and the distinction of an AudioFile Best Audiobook of 2007, as well as the prestigious Audie Award in 2007 for Best Mystery Narration. T. Ryder Smith is an American actor. A native of New York state and long-time resident of New York City, he has appeared frequently on stage, particularly in avant-garde theater works, and in film, sometimes as a voice actor. Graham Winton is a television, film, and voice actor who has won the Audie Award for Best Narration. He has appeared on such television shows as Blue Bloods, Law & Order, All My Children, and As the World Turns.

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