Old Wicked Songs

By Jon Marans and John Marans

Book Overview

THE STORY: Hoping to reconnect with his music and shatter the artistic block that's plagued his career, Stephen Hoffman, a young American piano prodigy, ventures to Vienna in the spring of 1986. He is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1568652739
• ISBN13: 9781568652733
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Doubleday Direct
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Wish I'd seen it on Broadway.

A great play. Loved reading it and imagining the characters, the music, the old-world Vienna studio where it takes place. Seemed to run forever on Broadway, but I hadn't seen it before buying the screenplay. Wish there were a CD containing a play reading, including stage directions. I would love to be able to hear the music.

Deep, believable, moving, amazing, and great!

I've seen the play twice and read the book. What a beauty! I've never seen a play before that took so little time for exposition or that gave us the necessary facts in such a natural way. The characters were interesting and their interaction was fascinating. Anyone who has ever been part of a superb teacher-student combination will adore this play. I felt I'd been waiting for it for years.

Phenomenal book from a very insightful and gifted author!

This is one of the best books/plays I have ever read. The author has great ability to take a tremendously painful subject, treat it with the respect it deserves, and show how his two vastly different characters can educate each other and learn from each other in many difficult but tender moments. The ribbons of circumstance, personalities, experiences, pain, talent, and, in the end, joy, flow through the story and finally come to parallel placements using Robert Schumann's composition, Dichterliebe, to gently weave through it and eventually pull it all together. Marans has given his two characters a good sense of humor to help cushion the pain. I learn something different each time I read through this book or even parts of it. I am a better, more empathetic person for reading this book and seeing the play.