Author Description

A vivid look at the world of the Broadway musical as seen through the eyes of the man behind the piano.When the Atlanta-born Paul Ford first fell in love with the American musical theater at the age of five, after seeing the movie version of Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific, he never imagined that his future skills as a "piano thumper" would lead him to a career on Broadway playing rehearsals or in the "pit" for such classic Stephen Sondheim musicals as Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Assassins, and Passion, along with numerous concerts, Sondheim birthday tributes, and television spectaculars including the legendary 1985 Follies in Concert and Stephen Sondheim at Carnegie Hall, plus such non-Sondheim shows as The Rink, I Remember Mama, Dancin', Rags, A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, and many others.Now retired, the candid (and admittedly opinionated) author looks back on the performances and personalities that defined the American musical theatre in the waning years of the Twentieth Century. Patti LuPone, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Donna Murphy, Elaine Stritch, Victor Garber, Bob Fosse, Gwen Verdon, Stockard Channing, Donna McKechnie, Lauren Bacall, Chita Rivera, Liza Minnelli, Martin Charnin, Liv Ullman, Teresa Stratas, Charles Strouse, Harve Presnell, Nancy Walker, James Lapine, Madonna, Mario Cantone, Warren Beatty, Julie Harris, Michael Cerveris, Debra Monk, Leonard Bernstein, and, of course, composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim (who personally singled-out Ford in two of his Tony Award acceptance speeches), are just a few of the legendary Broadway and Hollywood performers and creators who are lovingly (and sometimes not so lovingly) recalled in Paul Ford's honest and vivid account of his life and work both on and off Broadway.