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66+ Works 3,126 Members 35 Reviews

About the Author

Ethan Mordden is the author of Make Believe: The Broadway Musical in the 1920s, Everything's Coming Up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s, Beautiful Mornin': The Broadway Musical in the 1940s, Open a New Window: The Broadway Musical in the 1960s, and One More Kiss: The Broadway Musical in the show more 1970s show less

Series

Works by Ethan Mordden

Buddies (1986) 254 copies
Everybody Loves You (1989) 202 copies
Some Men Are Lookers (1997) 175 copies
Pooh's Workout Book (1984) — Author — 159 copies
Opera Anecdotes (1985) 126 copies
The Venice Adriana (1998) 94 copies
How's Your Romance? (2005) 93 copies
One Last Waltz (1988) 87 copies
Rodgers & Hammerstein (1992) 75 copies
The Hollywood Studios (1988) 69 copies
A Guide to Opera Recordings (1987) 22 copies
The Hollywood Musical (1981) 21 copies
Gays on Broadway (2023) 16 copies
The American Theatre (1981) 8 copies
Hollywood Studios (1990) 2 copies
The Jewcatcher (2008) 2 copies
Aschenputtel. (2004) 1 copy

Associated Works

Men on Men: Best New Gay Fiction (1986) — Contributor — 236 copies
First Love/Last Love (1985) — Contributor — 86 copies
Man of My Dreams: Provocative Writing on Men Loving Men (1996) — Contributor — 75 copies
Between Men: Best New Gay Fiction (2007) — Contributor — 60 copies
Beach : Stories by the Sand and Sea (2000) — Contributor — 32 copies

Tagged

* (20) 20th century (14) anthology (77) biography (26) Broadway (63) classical music (17) fiction (343) film (30) gay (237) gay fiction (139) gay literature (16) gay men (62) Gay men > Fiction (33) glbt (20) history (69) History and Criticism (15) Hollywood (19) humor (32) lgbt (20) LGBTQ (17) literature (18) music (119) musical (17) musical theater (54) musicals (67) New York (41) New York City (42) non-fiction (76) novel (17) opera (73) Performing Arts (17) queer (25) read (25) reference (21) short stories (119) theatre (151) theatre history (32) to-read (55) US (23) Visual and Performing Arts (15)

Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

A narrator with a fitness fixation invades the Hundred-Acre Wood and tries to convince the Pooh friends to take up exercise regimens.

The first and final chapters carry the day as Ethan Mordden manages to capture A. A. Milne's style quite well and has the Pooh friends staying true to themselves even as the narrator attempts to change and improve them.

The middle of the book drags quite a bit, unfortunately, as Mordden tries to turn every Ernest H. Shepard picture with even a little bit of motion in it into an unimpressive form of exercise for the Pooh friends. He also pads out the book by dropping in long segments of text from Milne's original, and it's always a mistake to remind the reader of what they could be having instead of the imitation they've got.

Still, it finishes strong with an amusing marathon that will please any child who can get past the sagging middle section (an apt description of mine and Pooh's general shapes, by the way).

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: Introduction -- 1. Planning a Fitness Program -- 2. Exercises for the Tigger Shape -- 3. Exercises for the Pooh Shape -- 4. Exercises for the Piglet Shape -- 5. Exercises That Get Something Done -- 6. An Exercise for Savage Weather -- 7. Stretch-and-Flex Exercises -- 8. Water Sports -- 9. Making Up Personal Workout Charts -- 10. The Forest Exercise Club -- 11. The Forest Marathon -- 12. An Exercise for Resting Up After

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a daughter gave us a chance to indoctrinate her into the cult by buying and reading her every Pooh book we came across. How many is that? I’m going to count them this year by reading and reviewing one every day and seeing which month I finally run out. Track my progress here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/23954351-rod-brown?ref=nav_mybooks&she... )
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villemezbrown | 1 other review | Nov 2, 2023 |
Really quite wonderful. Mordden's book has one great flaw: it was written in 1987. Beyond the fact that an entire generation of singers have recorded these works in that time, approaches to singing and performance have shifted yet again, the reputations of opera houses and composers have altered, and of course the LP vs CD debate has largely been rendered redundant. (All those questions do help make this book a useful time capsule, but they're ultimately a hindrance to a younger reader such as myself.)

Still, that's damning with faint praise. Mordden writes with great clarity about nine decades of recording history. He explores everything you could want to know, starting with the history of opera recording (back when five minutes per disc was a luxury!) and moving intelligently and insightfully through the rest of history. The book also doubles as a potted history of opera (the author smartly judges his audience as being enthusiastic but not necessarily knowledgeable about the works). And his great breadth of knowledge allows him to show reasoned opinions on the works. His is not a "hate or love" Amazon review; it's a work of true passion.

Of course, the 27-year difference brings its own challenges. Many of these recordings remain classics, but there are certainly operas or performers, performing styles or approaches, not to mention record labels, that are now slightly archaic. That doesn't make them wrong - as Mordden so passionately convinces us - but it may challenge younger opera fans or newcomers. So, what I'd suggest is pretty simple. Read this book (or at least browse it) to get an overall idea. It's probably helpful to grab the Gramophone guide, read some Amazon reviews, and maybe do some preview listening on Spotify to get an idea of how the land lies. But you still can't go wrong with this one.
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therebelprince | Oct 24, 2023 |
Book 4 in the buddies series. This one finally has bud with a live on, Virgil. We also meet Dennis Savage's soon to be book publisher. Said publisher is just coming out of the closet and does so in a big way. Also Dennis Savage's long term live in leaves him and has an affair. Not suite sure how that one ends as the book leaves it kind of hanging. Bud and Virgil take a trip to Venice to see one of buds long ago love interests. Good book overall.
 
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ChrisWeir | 1 other review | Sep 27, 2022 |
1st in the buddies series. A group of stories that are all interlinked. Fun read and a good bit campy. Ground breaking fir it's time of 1987
 
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ChrisWeir | 2 other reviews | Sep 12, 2022 |

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Works
66
Also by
6
Members
3,126
Popularity
#8,176
Rating
3.8
Reviews
35
ISBNs
146
Languages
6

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