I Got the Show Right Here

The Amazing, True Story of How an Obscure Brooklyn Horn Player Became the Last Great Broadway Showman

By: Cy Feuer, Ken Gross

Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld

Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Guys & Dolls...The Boyfriend...How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying...Can-Can... These are just a few of the many Broadway shows produced by the legendary Cy Feuer, who, in partnership with the late Ernest H. Martin, brought to life many of America's most enduring musicals.

Cy Feuer was at the center of these creations, as well as the films based on two of Broadway's most exceptional musicals, Cabaret and A Chorus Line. He was the man in charge, the one responsible for putting everything together, and - almost more important - for holding it together.

Now, at age 92, as Cy Feuer looks back on the remarkable career he had on Broadway and in Hollywood, the stories he has to tell of the people he worked with are fabulously rich and entertaining.

There's Bob Fosse, a perfectionist with whom Feuer did battle over the filming of the movie Cabaret. There's Frank Loesser, the brilliant and explosive composer of Guys & Dolls, Where's Charley?, and How to Succeed... There's Liza Minnelli, star of both the movie Cabaret and the Broadway musical The Act, whose offstage activities threatened to disrupt the show. There's the contentious George S. Kaufman, the librettist and director whose ego was almost as great as his talent.

Add to the list such glamorous figures as Cole Porter, Julie Andrews, Abe Burrows, Gwen Verdon, John Steinbeck, Martin Scorsese, and George Balanchine, and you have a sense of the unbeatable cast of characters who populate this fabulous story of a young trumpet player from Brooklyn who became musical director for the Republic Pictures film studio, then feverishly tackled Broadway, back when "putting on a show" did not require the support of major corporations, and when dreams of overnight success really did have a chance of coming true.

Funny, witty, and immensely entertaining, I Got the Show Right Here is a treat for anyone who loves show business, a story wonderfully told by one of Broadway's greatest and most talented producers.

©2003 Cy Feuer and Ken Gross (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Boy, you should really read this book!

If you are at all interested in the theater, or film, or history, or pastrami, you will love this book so much you will want to call Audible and ask if you can pay more.

In addition to a wonderful story, the narrator gives such a great performance you’ll wonder why anyone would bother with a hard copy. Frankly, I can’t imagine.

My only regret is that I can never again have the joy of discovering this great audiobook, but you can. So what’s keeping you?

An Era and a Genius Revealed

A wonderful book and a thoroughly engrossing tale of some of America's most beloved musicals. Success doesn't come by itself but good fortune and good timing plays it's part when brilliant dedicated people collide and create a masterpiece. What a life. What a contribution.
M. E. R.

One of the absolute best!

This is one of the absolute best Books about how Broadway Musicals are made. A must read.

A Peek Behind the Curtain

I don't remember ever knowing anything about Cy Feuer, though I am familiar with most of his works. Just never attached them to him. In fact, I'm not sure I'd ever even heard of the guy. But the book is a lighthearted tour of his life as he remembers it. (He starts off admitting, or suggesting that age might have affected his memory.)

As such, it's not just an autobiography, starting off with how he went from rags to riches — managing to repeatedly slip on butter and land in roses — but it's a guided tour of how big stage productions and movie musicals come together, and come to life. There are interesting and entertaining anecdotes throughout about popular Broadway productions, out of town tryouts, plenty of backstage gossip, and tales about the trials and tribulations of showbiz.

If you have interest in the NY theatre world, there are lots of names you'll recognize, from Rudy Vallee to Liza Minelli, Cole Porter, Ray Bloger, Julie Andrews, Frank Loesser, Bob Fosse, and many others. Lots of surprising and interesting stories.

If you have an interest in the musical theatre, this is a very enjoyable, and important peek behind the curtain.

Fascinating but flawed.

First, the title is a sham. Cy Feuer is not the Last Great Broadway Showman. I think that nod could go to David Merrick or Cameron Mackintosh since they both produced Broadway shows past Feuer and Martin's careers.

The book is interesting in seeing how tenuous producing a Broadway musical can be. What I was longing for, and never got, was what happened with the genesis of such major flops as Whoop-Up!

As this is a personal memoir, one needs to go to other sources to get more information about the shows that Feuer & Martin put on or almost put on. For example, regarding Pipe Dream, Feuer never mentions that Richard Rodgers early on developed an extreme dislike for him which is one reason they were pushed out of the picture. Also, regarding The Music Man, Feuer fails to realize that show he would have produced would probably have not been the same show that Kermit Bloomgarten ultimately produced.

The narration is less than stellar. Mr Blumenfeld tends to rush in parts, slurring his words.