Hit or Flop Expert on Broadway Musicals to Write History Explaining Why

Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times Jack Viertel.

Jack Viertel, the artistic director of New York City Center Encores!, has signed a deal with Farrar, Straus and Giroux to write a book about the structure and inner workings of Broadway musicals and why some shows succeed and others falter, the publisher and Mr. Viertel said this week. The book, tentatively titled: “The Secret Life of the Broadway Musical: How Broadway Shows are Built,” is scheduled for publication in winter 2016.

Mr. Viertel, whose Encores! series has become a popular staple of New York theater, featuring rarely heard works by major composers and lyricists backed by sizable orchestras and Broadway-caliber casts, said he will draw on years of classes he has taught to musical theater students at New York University.

“I found that people in their 20s and 30s didn’t understand how classic musicals are built, because that golden age of musicals is so far away from us now,” Mr. Viertel said in a telephone interview on Friday, referring to an era that, for his purposes, starts with the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical “Oklahoma!” in 1943 and ends with “A Chorus Line” in 1975. Encores! often produces musicals from that period, including its last well-reviewed production, “It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman” from 1966.

“There was a real blueprint that ‘Oklahoma!’ laid down for people, that was then followed in a fairly rigorous way by composers and book writers, and that reflected an agreed-upon set of principles about America - that we were a can-do, optimistic nation,” Mr. Viertel said. “Then in the 1970s the Hal Prince-Stephen Sondheim shows - ‘Company,’ ‘Follies,’ several others - started changing that, because they were so daring and encouraged writers to think they didn’t need the blueprint anymore. And the cultural ferment going on - related to Vietnam, Watergate - accelerated that change.”

No single blueprint exists today, Mr. Viertel noted, but the scripts and songs of current hit Broadway musicals like “The Book of Mormon” and “Wicked” can be traced to the architecture of the golden age - for instance, an opening number, the lead character’s “I Want” song, a love song, a heavily choreographed production number, an act-one closer, a song for a secondary romantic couple, a so-called 11 o’clock number, and a finale.

Mr. Viertel, who is also senior vice president of Jujamcyn Theaters, which owns five of Broadway’s 40 houses and is a producer of shows, said the book will also examine the history of out-of-town tryout and script doctoring - key parts of the development process for shows before they open on Broadway, which for decades was the ultimate destination for artists and producers. Many musicals today, by contrast, are licensed or tour around the world, and profits are often more likely in other countries due to cheaper labor costs.