Leonard Jacobs loves the theater--in fact it seems he breathes it in and manages to exhale it out in a fashion that will let the reader breathe it in too. He is a powerful writer, and the task of sifting through more than a million photos of theater life to present 120 years of theater history has been handled masterfully.

The book has a dramatic start with a photo of Junius and Edwin Booth, Edwin to become the century's finest actor. His brother, John Wilkes Booth, becomes the assassin of President  Lincoln in 1865. A photo of Niblo's Garden, a theater with seating capacity of 3,000 and considered state-of-the-art for this period, was eventually replaced by an office building in 1895. What a shame! However, on a brighter note, a troupe of British blondes led by Lydia Thompson, introduced burlesque to America--changing our strict social codes to be more permissive in nature. Musicals, slapstick comedies and Shakespeare filled the theaters as did long running plays like Adonis and The Count of Monte Cristo.

As the years pass on, the dress, acting style and productions change. The photos selected and the captions, give insight to the emotions and beliefs of the times. Women become more active in the stage and getting better pay. Actors organized and went on strike in 1919. This volume highlights some great theaters as well as performers. The lives of many stage managers, composers, playwrights, actors and actresses come to life just as some plays become standards, with a life of their own. Influences from overseas prompted America to have a new look at acting methods and wartimes left it's imprint on all concerned. The Great Depression made theater goers long to laugh, and better times made theater goers long to reflect and even cry.

Suffice it to say that theater, over the years, has run the gamut of talents and emotions. It is the story of people and their feelings about life and it's twists and curves. This volume does it credit. An enormous task, but a book that will take you back, let you reflect, and with the authors prompting, think.

About The Author - Leonard Jacobs has been a theater practitioner, critic, and journalist since 1990. He is the National Theatre Editor of Back Stage, the trade publication for American actors, and chief critic for Back Stage and the New York Press; he was also the founding editor of Theatermania.com. As an arts and culture writer and editor, he has contributed to American Theatre, the Hollywood Reporter, the Village Voice, Kirkus Reviews, the Sondheim Review, and Roundabout Theatre Company’s Front & Center, and is represented as a contributor and assistant to the editor for the 2007 Cambridge Guide to American Theatre. The author of 10 plays and director of 40, he is a Tony voter and a member of the Drama Desk and American Theatre Critics Association; chairs the New York Innovative Theatre Awards; adjudicates new scripts for the New York International Fringe Festival and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center; teaches yearly as part of the National Critics Institute at the O’Neill; and has guest lectured at Princeton and Yale. A specialist in late-nineteenth and early twentieth century American theater, he graduated from New York University in the twentieth century and will earn his M.A. from Hunter College, City University of New York, in the twenty-first.

Leonard Jacobs was interviewed on our online radio show, Champagne Sundays on October 12, 2008. To listen to the entire, unedited show, please click here. To listen to Leonard's interview. please double click on the Play button below: