Martin Gottfried
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Martin Gottfried is an American critic, columnist, and author.
A 1955 graduate of Columbia College in New York City, Gottfried began his writing career as the classical music critic for The Village Voice, doubling as an off-Broadway reviewer for Womens Wear Daily, a position that made him the youngest member of the New York Drama Critics Circle in the organization's history.
In 1968, Little, Brown and Company published his first book, A Theater Divided, a study of post-World War II American theater. The book won the highest honor in dramatic criticism, the George Jean Nathan Award. Three years later, Putnam published Opening Nights, a collection of his essays. By then, he had become a regular contributor to the Arts and Leisure section of the Sunday New York Times.
In 1974, he became the drama critic for the New York Post, and in 1979 began writing for Saturday Review, the same year Harry N. Abrams, Inc. published his Broadway Musicals, which has become the definitive text on the subject of American musical theater. In 1991, it was joined by a sequel, More Broadway Musicals.
Until recently the drama critic for the New York Law Journal, Gottfried has conducted a series of "Conversations" at the 92nd Street Y as well as at the New School of Social Research and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Participants have have included Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Harold Prince, Jane Alexander, Christopher Walken and Richard Dreyfuss.
Gottfried also has been a contributor to the London Times, Vogue, and Condé Nast Traveler. He also writes regular articles on the performing arts for Stagebill, the program distributed in theaters and concert halls across America. He has been a guest professor of theater at the Columbia University School of the Arts, Carnegie-Mellon University, Rutgers University and the Colorado College, as well as a Visiting Artist/Professor at the College of Santa Fe.
Gottfried's writings include biographies of Sondheim, Arthur Miller, Jed Harris, Bob Fosse, Danny Kaye, George Burns, and Angela Lansbury. His latest book, co-written with Bill Condon and Cheo Coker, is Dreamgirls The Movie Musical, published in December 2006.
