Enchanted evenings

The classic musicals of Broadway can provide us with truly enchanted evenings. But while many of us can hum the music and even recount the plots from memory, we are often much less knowledgeable about how these great shows were put together. What was the inspiration for Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey, or Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel? Why is Maria's impassioned final speech in West Side Story spoken, rather than sung? Now, in Enchanted Evenings, Geoffrey Block offers theater lovers an illuminating behind-the-scenes tour of some of the best-loved, most admired, and most enduring musicals of…