Preview
  • Razzle Dazzle

  • The Battle for Broadway
  • By: Michael Riedel
  • Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
  • Length: 16 hrs and 40 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (189 ratings)

Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.

Razzle Dazzle

By: Michael Riedel
Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.46

Buy for $19.46

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Razzle Dazzle is a provocative, no-holds-barred narrative account of the people, money, and power that reinvented an iconic quarter of New York City, turning its gritty back alleys and sex shops into the glitzy, dazzling Great White Way - and bringing a crippled New York from the brink of bankruptcy to its glittering glory.

In the 1970s, Times Square was the seedy symbol of New York's economic decline. Its once shining star, the renowned Shubert Organization, was losing theaters to make way for parking lots. Bernard Jacobs and Jerry Schoenfeld, two ambitious board members, saw the crumbling company was ripe for takeover and staged a coup amid corporate intrigue, personal betrayals, and criminal investigations. Once Jacobs and Schoenfeld solidified their power, they turned a collapsed theater-owning holding company into one of the most successful entertainment empires in the world, ultimately backing many of Broadway's biggest hits, including A Chorus Line, Cats, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, and Mamma Mia! They also sparked the revitalization of Broadway and the renewal of Times Square.

With wit and passion, Michael Riedel tells the stories of the Shubert Organization and the shows that rebuilt a city in grand style, revealing backstage drama that often rivaled what transpired onstage, exposing bitter rivalries, unlikely alliances, and, of course, scintillating gossip.

©2015 Michael Riedel (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Featured Article: The Show Must Go On—Premier Audiobooks Now Playing for Theater Fans


A good play or musical is emblematic of what we love about entertainment—a chance to escape, to be fully immersed in another world, to engage with our most human emotions in a moment brought brilliantly to life by the talents of impeccable performers. It's possible to get your fix of the Great White Way in the comfort of your own home. Here are just a few of our favorite theater audiobooks to tide you over until curtain call.

What listeners say about Razzle Dazzle

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    121
  • 4 Stars
    54
  • 3 Stars
    11
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    104
  • 4 Stars
    31
  • 3 Stars
    27
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    119
  • 4 Stars
    41
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Astounding

Makes me want to move to Manhattan, as close to 42nd Street as possible! The narration was very energetic

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very Interesting and Highly Entertaining!!

Such a fun listen. If you love musical theater, this book is a in depth journey from the beginning of Broadway through 2015.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good story

A nice history of Broadway as seen through the lens of the Shubert organization.

Best listened to at 1.5x speed.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Riedel Dazzles

As an avid fan of Broadway and theatre history, I found Riedel's book both fascinating and engaging. He divides the history into the various stages of Broadway's history including The Golden Age, The British Invasion, and the Disneyfication, among others. Riedel has the ability to personalize each historical interaction as though he was in the room as things were happening. His in depth look at Schoenfeld and Jacobs and their relationships with such Broadway characters as Merrick and Bennet shines a whole new light on the famous theatre district and the shows that have inhabited those historic theatres. A great read for any theatre nerd or Broadway novice. Audible 20 Review Sweepstakes Entry

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Mediocre presentation of fascinating material

If you are interested in theatre, Riedel's book will broaden your knowledge, and your stock of after-dinner tales. He presents two histories in one. The first is of the business people of the theatre, those who provide the money for the art while making money from the art. The second is of their productions, a concise survey of those stagings, mostly musicals, that created Broadway as we now know it and of the people who created the stagings. Both are presented in a crisp, journalistic style, often even gossipy, that makes almost no attempt to evaluated the artistic achievements of these productions but concentrates on the money, maneuvering, and manipulation that got them mounted, and how they made and lost astonishing fortunes while transforming the city of New York.
How musicals dominate Broadway is reflected in his attention, perhaps of necessity, and if you expect to learn much of anything about significant plays on Broadway - save a lengthy and fascinating description of the importance of Equus and Nickleby to the Schubert fortunes - you'll be disappointed. Once he gets past Nickleby, I can't remember his talking at any length about a play, though his hopes for future choreographers is worth his time.
More significant an irritation is the narration. The narrator is one of those breathless "I don't trust the words to be exciting, so I will make them exciting" readers who forces emphasis and significance onto words, like a library reader trying to force small children to enjoy a book. Then too, his attempts to pronounce some words - 'sui generis' as "sue -EE gen-AIR-is - becomes more of a problem when he mispronounces the name of a significant person.
Sill, I speeded him up and finished the book, glad to have the information. Reidel's accomplishment is to make quite clear why we call Broadway's version of theatre "show biz."

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Most informative book ever on Broaday

What made the experience of listening to Razzle Dazzle the most enjoyable?

the narrator was wonderful and the book written so well with so much Razzle dazzle if you will. so much great information will review it again and again.

Who was your favorite character and why?

the info on the Schubert's especially JJ was amazing. would be a great moview.

What does Peter Berkrot bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Just his attention to every word and liveliness of his delivery as if he started reading and never put the book down. Really exceptional narration.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

the miracle of someone like Michael Bennet what he brought to it and left there even after a pretty short career. What a marvelous character.

Any additional comments?

Anyone who has ever uttered the word Broadway should pick up this book. What treasure.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Razzle Dazzle does Dazzle

Michael Riedel puts his undergraduate History background & insiders knowledge of Broadway & it's movers & shakers to showstopping good use in "Razzle Dazzle". Part Theater History, how Broadway was developed, part personality history of influential producers & creatives -- directors, composers, playwrights & performers and the back stories on Broadway's most successful shows & painful flops, this book covers it all. It makes you want to listen to those shows & find your old Playbills. It will join the ranks of Goldman's "The Season" if you love & want to fully appreciate Broadway.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very impressive for any theater lover

Incredible history of the New York theater scene. Well written and detailed. I strongly recommend this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book!! Speed up the narration.

Fantastic book!! The narration not so much. BUT....if you speed it up it is much better. If you are interested in theater, then this book is a must read!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A class in Theatre.

I've have had this book for years reading it here and there. But listening to it being read was like a history class of Broadway. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought, with all the behind the scene business deals. And gossip about who likes who. But a tremendous read. And coming from one of the great host of one of my fave programs Theatre Talk. It did not disappoint.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!