(Book). Jazz fans get the inside story of New York's legendary club. At age 83, Lorraine Gordon is a jazz icon who has lived more than a few lives: downtown bohemian, uptown grande dame, music business pioneer, wife, lover, mother, and finally at a point when most women her age were just settling into grandmotherhood owner of the most famous jazz club in the world, the Village Vanguard. The trajectory of her journey has been remarkable. The details are a Jackson Pollock-like swirl of fierce colors shot through with larger-than-life creative figures: not just jazz figures but luminaries from every point on the political, social and entertainment spectrum: from Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk to Lenny Bruce, Norman Mailer and Barbra Streisand. * The legendary Village Vanguard has been an international jazz mecca since 1935. According to New York Magazine, "A musician hasn't truly arrived in the jazz world until he's played at the 'Carnegie Hall of Cool, ' the Village Vanguard." * There have been over 100 "Live at the Village Vanguard" recordings by premier artists from John Coltrane to Wynton Marsalis.

Narrated by Barry Singer-one of contemporary musical theater's most authoritative chroniclers-Ever After was originally published in 2003 as a history of the previous twenty-five years in musical theater, on and off Broadway. This new, second edition extends the narrative, taking readers from 2004 to the present. The book revisits every new musical that has opened since the last edition, with Barry Singer once again as guide. Before Ever After appeared in 2003, no book had addressed the recent past in musical theater history-an era Singer describes as "ever after musical theater's many golden ages." Derived significantly from Singer's writings about musical theater for the New York Times, New York magazine, and the New Yorker, Ever After captured that era in its entirety, from the opening of The Act on Broadway in October 1977 to the opening of Avenue Q Off-Broadway in March 2003. This new edition brings Ever After up to date, from Wicked through The Book of Mormon to Hamilton and beyond. Once again, Ever After is the first book to cover this new age. And, once again, utilizing his recent writing about musical theater for Huffington Post and Playbill, Barry Singer's viewpoint is comprehensive and absolutely unique.

Ever After is more than a detailed show-by-show history of the last quarter century in American musical theater. It explains how the storied Broadway tradition in many cases went so very wrong. Singer takes the reader behind the scenes for an unparalleled look at A Chorus Line's final bow, the creation of Rent, the real people behind Disney's uber-musicals, and even an afternoon with Andrew Lloyd Webber. Ever After also celebrates the promise of the next generation of young musical theater artists, especially Adam Guettel, Michael John LaChiusa, Ricky Ian Gordon and Jason Robert Brown, addressing not only their work to date, but their future projects. There is no other book currently available that covers this period and subject. Through his work for The New York Times, Singer has interviewed virtually everyone of significance. They are all here, very much speaking for themselves. Ever After is both anecdotal and analytical, featuring personality profiles of important creative figures, from Jule Styne to Stephen Sondheim to Jonathan Larson, while critically evaluating all of the many musicals produced during the past 25 years. Sure to generate debate, this is a book written not only for the musical theater aficionado, but for anyone who has seen a Broadway musical or has just enjoyed the movie version of Chicago and is curious to know more.