Preview
  • Facing the Music

  • A Broadway Memoir
  • By: David Loud
  • Narrated by: David Loud
  • Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (3 ratings)

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Facing the Music

By: David Loud
Narrated by: David Loud
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Publisher's summary

Musical director and arranger David Loud, a legendary Broadway talent, recounts his wildly entertaining and deeply poignant trek through the wilderness of his childhood and the edge-of-your-seat drama of a career on, in, under, and around Broadway for decades. He reveals his struggle against the ravages of Parkinson's and triumphs repeatedly. This memoir is also a remarkable love letter to music. Loud is the Ted Lasso of the theater business, ever the optimist!

Unforgettably entertaining and emotionally revealing, Loud is pitch-perfect as he describes his path to the podium, from a stage-struck kid growing up at a school devoted to organic farming and mountain climbing, to the searing formative challenges he faces during adolescence, to the remarkable behind-the-scenes stories of his Broadway trials and triumphs. Skilled at masking his fears, Loud achieves his dream until one fateful opening night, when in the midst of a merry, dressing room celebration, he can no longer deny reality and must suddenly, truly, face the music.

©2022 David Loud (P)2023 David Loud
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Critic reviews

"'Music has consequences,' a wise teacher once told a young David Loud; so does a story well-told and a life fully-lived. I lost count of how many times I laughed, cried, and laugh-cried reading this wonderful, wry, intimate, and inspiring book. David wields a pen like he wields a baton, with perfect timing, exquisite phrasing, and enormous heart.” (David Hyde Pierce, actor, Frasier, Spamalot, Curtains)

“Luminous and surprising, an extremely honest memoir of a life lived in the world of Broadway musicals, by one of the theatre’s most gifted conductors. I can’t think of another book quite like it.” (John Kander, composer, Cabaret, Chicago, New York, New York)

“Beautifully written, filled with vivid details, braided with love and loss and wit and the perspective of someone with an utterly unique story to tell." (Lynn Ahrens, lyricist, Ragtime, Once on This Island, Anastasia)

What listeners say about Facing the Music

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I didn’t want it to end!

This book was so beautifully written. There were points where I could see the author on the streets of New York or in an orchestra pit! It shares not only the ups and downs of the business, but of life and love! I loved every second!

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Terrific listen with great Broadway insights

Loved this book! Wonderful tale of how a Broadway-enchanted boy blossoms into a musical (and performing) Great White Way luminary. So many great stories and inside looks at creators like Sondheim, Kander and Ebb, Flaherty & Ahrens, Terrence McNally, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick. and stars galore including Audra McDonald, Zoe Caldwell, and many many more. Excellent narration by the author. So glad I found this!

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