I'm the Greatest Star

Here comes the first major survey of Broadway musical theatre stars that covers the entire period from 1900 to the present, telling the life stories of the top stage luminaries from Al Jolson, George M. Cohan, and Fanny Brice, through Zero Mostel, Alfred Drake, Gwen Verdon, to today's Nathan Lane, Patti Lupone, and Audra McDonald. A total of 40 stars are profiled in this keepsake edition that describes their most important stage roles, then relates the triumphant, tragic, inspiring, and cautionary tales of how they worked their way up to stardom - and then tried to maintain that stardom in the face of economic adversity, racism, social upheaval, aging, critics, and changing public taste.All the traditional favorites are here - Carol Channing, Ethel Merman, Mary Martin, and Bert Lahr - plus the book restores great forgotten stars, including Marilyn Miller, William Gaxton, Bobby Clark and Adele Astaire, to their proper place, and celebrates the crop of modern stars like Donna Murphy, Bernadette Peters, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Kristin Chenoweth. Full-page photos of the stars accompany each chapter.