"A revered and provocative theater observer presents a grand history of the producers, directors, actors, and critics battling for creative and financial control of Broadway"--Front jacket flap.

In the mid-1970s, Times Square was a moribund symbol of New York's economic decline. Dilapidated theaters abutted sex shops. Nervous theatergoers had to dart past drug dealers and hustlers. Broadway, once a defining source of American music and art, was becoming an irrelevant sideshow. But today Broadway is an artistic and economic engine, a place where stars are still born, where audiences from around the world still assemble, and where billions of dollars are made. In Razzle Dazzle, Michael Riedel, a legendary theater reporter, explains the cause of Broadway's reversal and uses his access and his erudition to pull back the curtain on its recent history, taking us into its dressing rooms and rehearsal spaces, box offices and boardrooms, bars and restaurants, to tell an extraordinary tale. The heroes of this story are an unlikely pair: Bernard Jacobs and Gerald Schoenfeld, two ambitious board members of the famous Shubert Organization. These two lawyers turned a collapsed theater-owning holding company into one of the most successful entertainment empires in the world, spearheading the revitalization of Broadway. The Shubert Organization would go on to back many of Broadway's biggest hits, from A Chorus Line to an unlikely musical called Cats. Their success would drive Broadway's growth and help attract talent, investors, and a host of rivals. Once again Broadway would continue to enchant generations of audiences.--Adapted from dust jacket.