Pamela's First Musical

The Tony Award-winning, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Heidi Chronicles spins a charming storybook tale of a magical first trip to a Broadway musical. "A light, fantastic trip down the Great White Way for the little kid in all of us."--Meryl Streep. Full color.

Kindergarten-Grade 3?The story of a young girl's first visit to a Broadway musical. It's Pamela's birthday and glamorous Aunt Louise is her entree to the excitement and thrill of lunch at the Russian Tea Room and seats at the 45th Street Theatre. Unfortunately, the text is littered with inside jokes that only avid theatre goers will appreciate. The female lead is Mary Ethel Bernadette (a tribute to Martin, Merman, Peters), and the male lead is Nathan Hines Klines (a tribute to Lane, Gregory, Kevin). The writers are Betty and Cy Songheim, who look curiously like Betty Comden and Adolf Green in the garish illustrations. The stage sets are a disjointed combination of bits and pieces from Pirates of Penzance, The King and I, South Pacific, Carousel, Peter Pan, and On the Town. This is certainly a subject of interest to children, but this endeavor by the award-winning dramatist is plagued by a plethora of puerile puns on plays. Two thumbs down!?Susan Pine, New York Public Library
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Eloise meets Auntie Mame in this giddy whirlwind tour of Broadway, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Wasserstein's first picture book. For her eighth birthday, Pamela's glamorous Aunt Louise, "a perfectly perfect person," whisks her into Manhattan to a matinee (after lunch at the Russian Tea Room, of course). The curtain rises on an over-the-top musical extravaganza filled with chorus lines 100 dancers strong, tap numbers, fabulous costumes, sets as huge as an MGM lot, and an outrageously corny boy-meets-girl plot, all told from a child's perspective ("When he sang, he opened his mouth extra wide, and Pamela could see that he didn't have a single cavity"). Jackness, a noted set designer, produces illustrations as hyperbolic as the featured play. Splashing across the pages in a frenzy of candy-colored lights, his watercolors capture the hustle and bustle of the performance. The story is overlong, and while many may agree with Pamela that her romp is "most splendiferous," others may find the tone and the allusions to real-life Broadway personalities slightly arch. It's also ironic that a playwright as known for realism as Wasserstein relies on wholesale exaggeration to convey the magic of the theater. Ages 5-10.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Playwright Wasserstein's first book for children pays homage to the theatre and all the people involved, in this tribute to another age, when the musical was king. Pamela spends her ninth birthday with Aunt Louise--cut from the same cloth as Auntie Mame--who whirls her into New York City for lunch at the Russian Tea Room and a matinee performance of a 17 Tony Awardwinning musical created by some of her closest friends- -producers, choreographers, designers, actors, songwriters, etc. Pamela avidly follows the plot of the musical, tries to memorize the songs, meets the participants during intermission and after the show, and recreates the whole show in her room later that night. Wasserstein captures the thrill of attending a live performance, but the entire venture will seem rather remote and rarefied to all but a special few. Jackness's illustrations are really fun; bright, swashbuckling colors swirl across the sets, puns and visual jokes fill the pages, and the musical's plot is delightfully silly--as most musicals are. Okay, so not all readers get to live at the Plaza with Eloise, either--this isn't a smash hit, but it is worth a visit. (Picture book. 5-10) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.