I so wanted to enjoy this but it's riddled with basic copyediting errors and some frankly mystifying glosses on texts (the Angels In America section is especially egregious).

The thoroughly researched Rise Up! comes from Chris Jones, chief theatre critic of the Chicago Tribune. In it, Jones explores the sociological and political ramifications throughout the history of Broadway, showing a direct line from Angels in America to Hamilton.

So often, Broadway can be seen as a mirror of ourselves and what is happening in society. As Jones says about Hamilton, people come out of the theatre inspired to take on the challenges of their own lives. He also discusses how Angels in America helped people understand the AIDS crisis and how Broadway became a solace after the horrors of 9/11. More issue-heavy works such as Spring Awakening and of course, Rent, are also explored.

All this being said, Rise Up! is not without its problems. The writing really rambles on at times without cohesion. It also seemed that no matter which play or musical Smith was describing, he couldn't help comparing whatever it was to Hamilton. However, if you can read through the minutiae, Rise Up! is an enjoyable book for theatre lovers.

MY RATING - 3

"When senseless acts of tragedy remind us
That nothing here is promised, not one day
This show is proof that history remembers.
We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger.
we rise and fall, and light from dying embers
Remembrances that hope and love last longer.
And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love;
cannot be killed or swept aside.
I sing Vanessa's symphony; Eliza tells her story.
Now fill the world with music, love, and pride"
Lin Manuel Miranda - Tony Awards 2016

Rise up! Goes into depth over the cultural, historical, economical, and political events that have influenced Broadway, such as AIDS, Police Brutality, gentrification, terrorism, war, gun violence, and inequality and provides insight on how Broadway's past has inspired Hamilton, and how we can relate today. Moving and very educational, I learned a lot about Broadway's past and people that created it.

This was a great book about theatre and the politics that inspired some of the most talked about plays and musicals. This would be a great book for college theatre classes to read.

as a musical nerd, I LOVED this book! it was really interesting to learn some history behind my favorite shows. A wonderful guide for any theater fan!

What a wonderful, uplifting account of the American musical!! As a person who follows the people and times of the genre, I found this book satisfying and informative. If you are a reader who loves finding out the backstory of Broadway, this is the book for you.

I really, really wanted to love this book as I am a major theater nerd. If this review were just for the theater content, it would be five stars.

The arc from Angels to Hamilton via RENT is a wonderful narrative of the last few decades of American theater. I really liked the interludes of some of the relatively less successful shows, like Keep Ya Head Up and Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson and of course Spidey. This might get me to move Song of a Spiderman up Mt. TBR. He also took a good, hard look at the frequently overlooked Beauty and the Beast when he explored Disney's growth on Broadway. Jones did a wonderful job of exploring each of these shows as they related to the general narrative, but also to one another. He was also able to make use of a couple of revivals of the shows he discussed, including the current Angels in America reboot with Nathan Lane, whose turn in The Producers he discussed. I also enjoyed the lens through which he explored 9/11's impact on the arts, including Broadway. While non-profit arts got grants and donations to survive the downturn, Broadway as a mostly commercial business did not. And some say it had barely recovered from the 9/11 stump when the 2007 strike and subsequent recession hit. American theater, and Broadway as a whole have been through a lot since Angels made its debut. And as he said when he discussed the role of Hamilton's success in saving the Founding Father on the $10 bill vs. Andrew Jackson being supplanted, it's likely to change even more.

All of that said, this is a really really early ARC and in some ways looks more like a self published title than a release from a major publisher. In the aforementioned chapter on Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson, Jones refers to the abolitionist Harriet Taubman. TAUBMAN! He alternately refers to Julie Taymor as Julie Taylor and he refers to Menken's sudden death of AIDS, but then mentions Menken talking about his partner's death all those years ago. Who died? Spoiler, it was Ashman to whom Beauty & the Beast was dedicated. And the song in that show? Be OUR Guest, not Be MY Guest. Also jarring, wrong dates for major news items such as the shooting of Michael Brown. Accuracy wise, the book gets one-two stars as these were really distracting to an otherwise good story.

So overall, a three. I'd recommend it to theater lovers on the assumption that these issues will be fixed before publication. If they're not, the poor attention to detail is going to drive the avid fan bonkers as I'm sure there are issues I missed.

'There is something about shows with 'America' in their name.'

"Identity is always being negotiated. To what extent do people who come to America have to give up something about their own identity to conform to an idea of what America is?'

I found it hard to put down when I started. Luckily, I'd seen or read most of the shows written about here, which really makes it a 5 star for me. It's incredibly readable and fast paced. I found more than anything, Jone was able to write exactly what made plays and musicals successes (i.e. 'it was populist but avant-garde, epic but human; gran but intimate; hugely complex but seemingly as simple as pie. It utilised one of the most potent and universal of human stories: overcoming the loss of a parent and the subsequent assumption of adulthood with a symbolic nod from the one deceased. Audiences never tired of that theme, of course, because no-one wearies the hope that the people we've loved and lost are still there to take care of us, even if we cannot easily discern their form.'-Why LION KING, LION KING! is a success)

A must read for those who love musicals and broadway.

I received a free copy from netgalley for an honest review. And there are some typos.

I hope that the ARC I just read gets a very, very heavy copyedit before it goes to press. What it really needs is a developmental edit, top to bottom.

Ostensibly a work about "Broadway and American Society from Angels in America to Hamilton," Rise Up! is a collection of anecdotes and trivia with a poor narrative structure. The author has tried to put together a chronological presentation of musicals and politics, but is too often interested in asides and jumps forwards and backwards in time: the result is a book in need of a strong outline and re-writing.

The tone is casual, aimed at a general readership, and apparently the author is a professional critic. The author's bona fides come into question, however, with a number of examples in which he appears not to actually know much about music, the study of music and ethnography, or other extant studies about the arts, society, and politics. Even for a broad audience, the book's sources display a superficiality that is also obvious in the text. Jones provides a lot of facts, but little linking them together, and even less interpretation or insight. In regard to the musical literacy issue, here's a sample: "Their [Green Day's] music may have been dominated by thrashing downward guitar strokes but is also far more melodic than their inherently atonal British ancestors [referring to the Sex Pistols] [...] Green Day did not run a-feared of major keys. They made more ample use of arpeggios--and keyboards in general--than either their predecessors or their peers." Does Jones know what atonality is? Does he know what an arpeggio is? Does he think it's an instrument? Or that an arpeggio can only be played on a keyboard?

Other issues:
--The frequent use of "a person called X" as in: "an intern named Monica Lewinsky;" a [....] taxi-driver named Rodney G. King;" A man named George Holliday;" "an [...] actress named Anna Deavere Smith;" "a solo artist named Lily Tomlin," and countless more.
--Grammar errors. Here's my favorite: "...a fantastical adventure by an unknown writer called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." The WRITER is called Harry Potter?
--Numerous typos. "Taylor" for "Taymor;" and others.
--Too much passive voice. "In 2017, an 18-year-old man named Michael Brown (there's that"named" thing again) was short 12 times by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri...." No. "A police officer shot 18-year old Michael Brown...."
--Poor organization even on the paragraph/section level. Jones writes about American Idiot for four pages before mentioning the album/show's creators (..."an American punk band called Green Day...")

I'd hoped this would be a smart book appropriate for music history and music and politics courses, but alas, it is most definitely not. In fact, I'd be loath to recommend it even to the most die-hard fan of American musicals: they can find all of the info in this book elsewhere (and easily) and make their own observations and analyses.

How does the saying go? ‘Art reflects life reflects Art?’ Author (and Chicago Tribune Theatre Critic) Chris Jones gives us, not a critique but an important history lesson; as much an American History lesson as one of Broadway in recent years. Our entire landscape is changing—both on stage and off, as Jones clearly demonstrates throughout this passionate book.

Jones has taken more recent, key Broadway accomplishments as they relate to the world around us and thoroughly examines their relationship to many historical events that continue to shape our world.

Many notable (and a few unexpected) productions are discussed in Rise Up. Their relationships with society today, as well as the redefining of Broadway’s direction have radically changed over past 20 years. Jones carefully walks the reader through those changes in a most enjoyable and engaging way.

I have to say, I was thrilled for the inclusion of American Idiot in the discussion. Though not a blockbuster commercial success, I completely agree that it was an important theatrical event on many levels.

I realize that the focus of Rise Up is the period from Angels in America (1992 Tony) to Hamilton (2016 Tony) but Jones mentions the successful Come From Away (2017) and there are numerous references to current facts as of 2018—so why, I wonder, did he choose to ignore Dear Evan Hansen (2017 Tony Winner) with its socially significant storyline involving the highly topical subjects of mental illness and youth suicide? I would have appreciated it inclusion, even if in an epilogue. The story goes on.

Highly recommended! I received an ARC copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My review has been posted to Goodreads.

Review has also been tweeted as usual.

Thank you! :c)

Wow, just WOW!! This is an important book, not only for theatre people, but for anyone who cares about the world we live in. I am so proud of the theatre community. We are always the ones who bring our important work and social commentaries to the Public. Look at Robert DeNiro at the Tonys this past weekend..I say Bless him for mouthing the truth!! This book is so very very very current and valuable! From Angels in America to RENT to the AIDS crisis, to Hamilton to HAIR and A CHORUS LINE to Bloody Bloodly Andrew Jackson...(I have to admit, not one of my favorite shows)..I loved reading about Lin Manuel Maranda and In The Heights!! ! Chris Jone's wonderful book tells us the importance of activism yesterday and today. All I can say again, is God Bless The Theatre Community in America! Keep It Up! #RESIST!!! Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic and Methuen Drama Publishers for the perusal of this very very very important book! Thank you Chris Jone!!!!!!

Rise Up! is a wonderful tome that investigates how Broadway has influenced, and been affected by, culture, politics and social values over the last thirty years. By highlighting certain productions, it tells the story of societal development and changing attitudes since the 1990s, and how these have related to the types of productions seen on the stage. I knew most, but not all, of the shows referenced, and found it an interesting and informative work. This is a book that will appeal to theatre lovers who enjoy a more thought-provoking approach to theatrical commentary. Definitely worth a read!

The author of this book did his research and managed to capture the rise and fall of Broadway based on current events and politics. 9/11, the AIDS epidemic and other events affected broadway ticket sales. The author also mentions failures as well as successes in an informative and unbiased manner.

This is another book sure to appeal more to us nerds who can't read too much about Broadway, and it this case, Christopher Jones expounds on the talents that have kept it going strong despite outside forces. From the devastation of AIDS through the recession of 2009, the tragedy of 9/11, the as-yet repercussions of the current administration, Broadway has continued to provoke and spark controversy even while entertaining, culminating in Hamilton, the phenomenon that bookends this journey. On a personal note, I was fortunate enough to have seen many of the seminal works in their original forms he references (most notably the original August: Osage County with Dennis Letts, Hamilton's original cast twice, and American Idiot in Berkeley), but still found Jones's fresh take on Albee, Letts, Hansberry and Miranda informative and fun to read.