Ethan Mordden's latest book arrived in the Amazon delivery yesterday, so I spent too much time browsing through it. He was once a really good friend who did me wrong around 1990, so I've had neary thirty years to observe his madness and sometimes loony takes on things. For instance, in discussing John McGlinn's wonderful EMI recording of Brigadoon in this book, he gets half the background story correct, but because that's now in print, it will be quoted over and over and people believe it's all fact.
I did, of course look up my recordings, since he has either obliquely panned or praised me in his books, whenever I turn up, without ever mentioning my name: in this one, he sorta likes my Eileen, ignores completely Dearest Enemy, and likes much of Roberta. I think The New Yorkers comes off best. He likes the arrangements, but can't mention Josh Clayton's wonderful work without also mentioning me.
However, w2ith those gripres, this book is great; it's very opinionated and a lot of fun, much more than his musicals-by-the-decades books with their often poor, if any, research'. I think his "Broadway Bebies" is far superior and less full of his bluster and ego.
However, the book itself as a piece of publishing is an embarrassment. Did no ne proofread this? It's certainly not published by his usual publishers St. Martin's Press or Oxford University Press, and it should have been. This one looks as if it were done in someone's basement on a printing press Christmas gift for children.
