Ever After remains far more than a detailed show-by-show history. With nearly one hundred first-person interviews, it is also a definitive behind-the-scenes account of how those shows were made. Singer invites the people who created the last forty years of musical theater on and off Broadway to tell their own stories. From an unparalleled look at A Chorus Lines final bow through the revolutionary evolution of Sunday in the Park with George, as recounted by Stephen Sondheim, the tragic triumph of Rent, the real people behind Disneys mega-musicals, and even an afternoon with Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ever After proceeds to a moment-by-moment account of the birth of Wicked, by composer Stephen Schwartz; the extraordinary journeys of shows like Fun Home, Dear Evan Hansen, The Bands Visit, and Hadestown, through the eyes of their respective creators; and, finally, the miracle of Hamilton, as reconstructed by its producer Jeffrey Seller.Ever After celebrates new generations of musical theater artists via extended interviews with Jeanine Tesori, David Yazbek, Rachel Chavkin, Billy Porter, Laura Benanti, Audra McDonald, Julie Taymor, Adam Guettel, Ricky Ian Gordon, Jason Robert Brown, and many more. Ever After also closely documents the evolving contributions of women and persons of color to the past forty years of musical theater: their triumphs, their setbacks, and their centrality to musical theaters future.Through his work for the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Huffington Post, and Playbill, Singer has been a firsthand witness to the past forty years of musical theater on Broadway and off. No one is better equipped to write the history of this era. Ever After is the first and the last word on the subject.
