Razzle Dazzle: The Battle For Broadway, Riedel- B

                                             This book is a charming review of the NY theater during the 20th century. The story is dominated by the Shuberts, three bright, aggressive brothers from Syracuse, NY, who came to dominate live theater, not only in NY, but around the country.  By the time of the Depression,  they owned almost all of NY's theaters and dozens elsewhere. They lost their organization to a bank, but were able to buy it back at auction. The Shuberts were on top of the world throughout the 'Golden Age' of Broadway in the 50's and 60's. When the last of the three brothers died in 1962, he left the organization to the Shubert Foundation. Broadway went into a deep dive a decade later under the onslaught of rock 'n' roll, the departure of the middle-class for the suburbs, the city's legendary decline and the mismanagement of a hard-drinking Shubert nephew.
                                               The two attorneys for the family ousted the nephew, withstood a politically-motivated onslaught from Louie Lefkowitz and backed the show that began the turnaround for Broadway. 'A Chorus Line' began its 15-year run in the spring of 1975. The blockbuster era had begun. By the end of the decade, attendance was back to late-60's levels. 'Cats' brought to Broadway the era of the global spectacle".  In the '90's and in the new century, Broadway boomed with 'LeMiz', ''Phantom', 'Mama Mia' and the Disney productions 'Beauty and the Beast'  and 'Lion King', reasserting itself as one of the city's most important industries. Various public and civic organizations achieved the impossible - they helped clean up  Times Square. Broadway contributes 11% of the city's economic output. The Shuberts are still a force. This has been a fun read. But, this is an industry with more mean-spirited, egomaniacal, despotic, womanizing, back-stabbing SOB's than any I know of.  "Naughty, bawdy 42nd Street"