SINGULAR SENSATION

A definitive and extraordinary account of recent Broadway history - spanning from the debut of Andrew Lloyd Weber's Sunset Boulevard to Disney's The Lion King - told by Broadway's most respected (and feared) commentator Michael Riedel.

Singular Sensation is a colorful, richly-reported narrative account of the people and the money and the power that created the blockbuster shows and aesthetic spectacle that has come to dominate not only a couple of acres of theater-studded real estate in the heart of Manhattan - but an industry that has captured the hearts and minds of millions and millions of people around the world.

From the creation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard (and the legendary jousting that ensued between him and the show's erstwhile star, Patti Lupone) to the ascendance of an unlikely musical by an unknown savant named Jonathan Larsen, who reimagined La Boheme as Rent; from the standing-room-only crowds who stormed to see Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane in The Producers to the once-sneered-at-but-ultimately-revered-and-critically-acclaimed masterpiece The Lion King (and the ensuing "Disneyfication" of Broadway), Riedel tracks the divas and the producers, the actors and the singers, the lyricists and the choreographers, the CEOs and the investors, the scoundrels and the villains who came together to give us the Broadway we know today: An industry awash in big hits and bigger money, and an industry split between its adherence to old artforms and the allure of popular culture.

Michael Riedel has been the theater columnist for the New York Post since 1998. New York magazine has called his column a "must-read" for the theater world. Michael began his radio career as regular on the Imus in the Morning show in 2011. In 2017 WOR, New York's oldest and highest-rated station, asked him to cohost its morning show with well-known sportscaster Len Berman. The "Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning" show is the highest-rated morning radio program in the New York City area. Michael's book Razzle Dazzle: The Battle for Broadway won the Marfield Prize for arts writing in 2015 and is widely considered to be the successor to William Goldman's celebrated 1967 book about Broadway, The Season. A graduate of Columbia University, Michael lives in the West Village.