A review by savannahldarr
Rise Up!: Broadway and American Society from 'angels in America' to 'hamilton' by Chris Jones

3.0

I love Broadway. Love it. So I was excited to read this book. Unfortunately, I had a lot of trouble getting into it. It is arranged somewhat chronologically to discuss how Broadway eventually made its way into the national conversation and used that platform to address real issues like AIDS, LGBTQ+ culture, slavery, etc. However, when discussing a play from the 1980s, the author would add a teaser about an upcoming Hamilton discussion. Then in the chapter about RENT, the author again brought up comparisons to Hamilton and said something similar to we'll discuss that later. I really did not like this. If you're going to do a chronological discussion, let it be chronological. Then draw the comparisons at the end. I want to know about RENT. I want to know about Angels in America. If there are connections to Hamilton, I don't want to know that until I'm learning about Hamilton. There were so many important issues and histories that the author discusses but it was lost in the poor writing style. That's unfortunate.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in return for an honest review.