Product Description
Shakespeare's Shylock in The Merchant of Venice-the epitome of money-grabbing avarice and cruelty-is, Arnold Wesker believes, "a libel on the Jews" and a reflection of Elizabethan racism. Wesker, one of Britain's most revered playwrights, decided to create a counter portrait to the Bard's offensive character by writing his own play, Shylock, in which the Jew is compassionate, intelligent, and deeply moral. John Dexter, the world-renowned director, arranged to have it open on Broadway in 1977 with Zero Mostel in the lead. The play promised to be a great box-office draw, with high advance bookings, thanks to Mostel. But after the first preview in Philadelphia, Mostel fell ill and died within days. The play opened on Broadway with Mostel's understudy, but its momentum had been fatally damaged and it spiraled into disaster. In this extraordinary book, Wesker records how the people involved-including many of New York's cultural elite-interacted in the making, and unmaking, of an extraordinary theatrical event. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The best book on theater I've read in years
This intense diary of one man's experience trying bring one play from his imagination to the stage is a remarkable human document. For anyone in the field, or anyone curious about how new plays are created, this book isessential -- and very pleasurable -- reading. Don't worry if you don't knowthe author or the play. It's actually more suspenseful if you know neither. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

GREAT AUTOBIOGRAPHY!!
THIS IS A GREAT AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ACTING GENIUS ZERO MOSTEL.IT'S HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!! ... Read more

Product Description
Zero Mostel portrays in pantomime the difference between such opposites as on-off, nice-grouchy, yummy-yucchy, and light-heavy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Hierloom, Classic, Can't Live Without!
When I bought this book in 1973 I had just graduated from university, and wasn't even thinking about getting married or having children.My son now has that original copy. What fun we had using it when he was growing up.It's indispensible for teaching reading (and ESL, btw).The Sesame Street Book of Opposites with Zero Mostel is in my Top Ten forever.

The greatest book of opposites
I bought this book approximately 30 years ago for my son and it was also used for his 2 sisters that followed.I remember the fun we had and how clearly the opposites were depicted. I have been searching the store shelves for a book of opposites but not one could meet the high quality and clarity expressed by Zero Mostel.I realized that the computer and Amazon was probably the way to find this book again. I was correct. I can't wait for it to arrive.

One of the best Children's Books ever made!
Words cannot adequately express the quality and character of this hard to find treasure.You have to hold it in your hands and read it to your children to capture the flavor of Zero Mostel
acting out his unique interpretation of "opposites".George
Mendoza's photographs are images that will haunt you with humor.
Find this book and tuck it away for the grandchildren!It is
a prize possession! I can't tell you how much I love this book! ... Read more

Product Description
The female subject absorbed in a book has prompted masterworks from Vermeer, Monet, Vuillard and Matisse, among many others. Less often portrayed are men in the act of reading--even Manet's portrait of Emile Zola depicts the writer staring away from his open volume. Is it the supposed passivity of this act that has discouraged men from modeling it? This mini-genre remains even less explored yet by photographers, though it surely offers the supreme opportunity for coaxing subjects of either sex into unself-consciousness, if not outright reverie. In Zero Mostel Reads a Book, Robert Frank takes a male comic actor for his subject but flouts the genre's quietist sobriety in every way possible. Mostel is depicted in cartoonish dimensions, bemused, baffled and apoplectic, as he makes his way through an unidentified hardback volume, while seated at a table or on a sofa in a large lounge area. First published in 1963 by The New York Times "for the fun of it" and a collector's item ever since, this lovely publication relates a series of theatrical and playful vignettes in which Mostel's most famous roles--Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Max Bialystock in The Producers--are clearly signaled. It is a delightful moment of slapstick in the Frank oeuvre. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Fun Collection of Photos
Seeing is understanding--a comedian in his full power, making faces over coffee and newspapers, making every photo a humorous narrative in a European flat!

will never do it again!
I bought this book by mistake. Wanted to buy Peru by the same author. I think the web site was misleading. It was a birthday present, so I was very unhappy. Sent it back and found out that the postage was $8 to England. The book is tiny and thin and never worth the money of around $20. Now the additional expense and will only get a small refund.
I don't know why I always fall into the same trap and get a book from this place in England. This is the second time! ... Read more

Product Description
Arthur Sainer's research, particularly among members of the Mostel family, has been prodigious and the facts of Zero's life are here. But the author does not hesitate to digress when there is a good story to tell. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great subject, horribly written
Much less a bio than an ego trip for the author.Forum is reduced to about 2 pages in the book.How did this ever get published?Skip it and look for another bio on Mostel. ... Read more

Product Description
246 pagesmeasures 9" x 12" ... Read more

Product Description
Vocal selections from "Fiddler on the Roof", Music by Jerry Bock.Book of Music sheets comprised in a book from Fiddler on the Roof.Sunbeam Music corp. ... Read more

Product Description
Film is a film written by Samuel Beckett, his only screenplay. It was commissioned by Barney Rosset of Grove Press. Writing began on 5 April 1963 with a first draft completed within four days. A second draft was produced by 22 May and a forty-leaf shooting script followed thereafter. It was filmed in New York in July 1964.Beckett?s original choice for the lead ? referred to only as ?O? was Charlie Chaplin, but his script never reached him.The director Alan Schneider was interested in ? Zero Mostel but he was unavailable. Beckett was ?enthusiastically in favour? of Jack MacGowran as a replacement but he also became unavailable. James Karen, who was to have a small part in the film, talked constantly about the 68 year old Buster Keaton and persuaded Schneider to consider him when MacGowran?s circumstances changed.Schneider credits Beckett himself with the suggestion however.The filmed version differs from Beckett's original script but with his approval since he was on set all the time, this being his only visit to the United States. ... Read more