The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway

Overview

William Goldman paints a vivid, unsentimental portrait of a single Broadway season, tracing the highs and lows of commercial theatre as it collided with artistic ambition. He turns the season into a panoramic drama, following producers, playwrights, directors, critics, and actors through a cycle of rehearsals, previews, openings, and closings. The result reads like narrative journalism: energized by scene-by-scene reporting, alive with dialogue, and propelled by the tensions that shape what reaches the stage and what fails quietly in rehearsal rooms.
Goldman focuses on the practical realities that determine theatrical fate. Money, timing, star power, critics' notices, and sheer luck are shown not as background details but as forces that drive creative decisions. The book treats Broadway as an institution governed by commerce and ego as much as by taste, and it tracks how artistic ideals are repeatedly compromised, negotiated, and occasionally vindicated.

Reporting approach

Goldman adopts the posture of an attentive, often amused observer. He spent extensive time backstage and behind the scenes, reporting with a methodical eye for detail and an ear for telling anecdote. Conversations with leading figures and extended access to production processes allow him to reconstruct moments with the immediacy of a novelist while maintaining the factual grounding of a reporter.
The prose is conversational and sharply critical when necessary, but it never loses sight of the human drama. Goldman can be warm toward creators who struggle honestly and scathing toward those whose choices are driven by publicity or greed. This balance lets readers understand both the mechanics and the pathos of show business.

Characters and institutions

The narrative is populated by a cast of recurring personalities: ambitious producers maneuvering to keep shows afloat, directors battling with constrained resources, playwrights defending the integrity of their scripts, and critics whose columns can alter careers overnight. Whereas actors sometimes shimmer briefly in the spotlight, it is the producers and the wheels of the theatre business that emerge as the real protagonists.
Institutions such as commercial producers, booking agents, and the powerful daily press are treated almost like characters themselves. Goldman shows how networks of influence determine which plays get extended runs, which close after a few performances, and which tour the country. The book demystifies the mystique of Broadway by exposing the negotiations, compromises, and calculated gambles behind every green room smile.

Key themes

A central theme is the uneasy alliance between commerce and art. Goldman repeatedly shows that good intentions and talent are insufficient without financial backing, publicity savvy, and favorable timing. The book also highlights the role of criticism as both conscience and executioner, capable of elevating a work or hastening its demise.
Another theme is the endurance of theatrical community amid constant turnover. Despite closures and bruised egos, the theatre world keeps reinventing itself season after season. Goldman captures the resilience of people who keep trying, sometimes failing spectacularly and sometimes producing triumphs that justify the risk.

Reception and legacy

Critically acclaimed upon publication, the book has endured as one of the definitive accounts of mid-20th-century Broadway. It is widely cited for its clarity, wit, and unromanticized portrayal of the theatre business. Writers, producers, and theatre historians often point to it as an essential primer for understanding how commercial theatre functions.
Beyond its usefulness as documentary reportage, the book remains readable and engaging for anyone curious about the mechanics of cultural production. Its combination of anecdote-driven narrative and sharp analysis makes it a lasting record of an era and a continuing guide to the perennial tensions that shape live theatre.