Mielziner: Master of Modern Stage Design
- Book Review,
by Frank Rich (Foreword), Mary C. Henderson
From Library Journal
Every once in a while a book comes along that is both beautiful and informative, and this gorgeous book on the great stage designer, Jo Mielziner, is one of them. Mielziner is considered one of the greatest (perhaps the greatest) set designers of all time. He designed the original sets for A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, and Carousel and operas such as Don Giovanni. This book covers his entire career, bringing the reader into the golden world of Broadway at a time when it really was a place of magic and divine inspiration. The 140 color photos are marvelous, though one wishes for more of the larger pictures (economics, surely; the $45 price tag is a bargain). Henderson, a journalist and theater historian of international reputation, has written a fascinating text, with background details that offer insights into this crazy world. Highly recommended for all academic art and theater collections and public libraries with patron interest. Susan L. Peters, Univ. of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
For more than 50 years, from 1925 to 1976, stage designer Jo Mielziner was a force to be reckoned with on Broadway and beyond. Part of a generation that took the radical design and lighting ideas of Gordon Craig and Adolph Appia and made them their own, Mielziner designed sets for the premier productions of many of the plays we now consider modern American classics, including A Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire , and Death of a Salesman. An amazingly prolific designer, Mielziner also made his mark on American musical theater, designing shows as different as South Pacific , Guys and Dolls , and Gypsy. This glossy, lavishly illustrated, oversize book presents hundreds of Mielziner's designs and drawings, many in color, documenting the full arc of his career, from '20s work with the Theatre Guild to his final projects, assisting the design of new theaters throughout America. The fine illustrations are accompanied by Henderson's exhaustively researched, somewhat dry biography of the designer. Jack Helbig
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
The greatest American stage designer of the twentieth century is celebrated in the first fully documented book on his prolific, five-decade-plus career, spanning 260 plays, musicals, ballets, operas, and motion pictures. In creating his now-famous designs for the original Broadway productions of A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, Carousel, South Pacific, Guys and Dolls, and scores of other shows, Jo Mielziner (pronounced Mel-ZEE-ner) brought to full maturity the bold stage-design concepts of the modern era and influenced succeeding generations of stage designers. This definitive book covers his entire career and treats readers to many evocative sketches and fully rendered designs that have never been published before.
About the Author
Mary C. Henderson, a Guggenheim fellow, member of the Tony Award committee, and a journalist and lecturer, is also the author of Theater in America. She lives in Congers, New York.
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