To Broadway
A Graphic Novel
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
"It's a showstopper!" (Publishers Weekly starred review)
A young dancer in postwar Europe tries to seize his dreams and become a Broadway performer.
In this moving graphic novel, Maurane Mazars deftly illustrates an emotionally resonant character study of a young gay man struggling to express himself in the wake of World War II.
Germany, April 1957. Uli is a modern dance student at the prestigious Folkwang University of the Arts who will do anything to pursue his dream of becoming a famous Broadway dancer. But Uli’s dream and his energetic, outgoing personality hardly fit the melancholy culture of postwar Europe.
During a fateful trip to Berlin, Uli meets Anthony, a young American dancer. The attraction is immediate, and Anthony convinces Uli to move to New York to try his luck on Broadway. The young men part ways, and Uli is inspired to pack his bags and embark on an adventure.
Will Uli be able to seize his dreams in New York City? Or is he just one of the many young artists doomed to find a disappointing reality check in the Big Apple?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mazars's sparkling English-language debut depicts the thrill of dance in graceful color and linework. In late-1950s Germany, young dancer Uli diligently studies classical ballet but adores American movie musicals. A tryst with Anthony, a Black American dancer, convinces him to move to New York City and pursue his dream of making it on Broadway. There, he befriends live-wire Patty, an aspiring playwright, and hooks up with Patty's cousin, Jacob—while still trying to reconnect with Anthony. Mazars captures the era in blazing watercolor and details the nuances of midcentury bohemian New York, including the discrimination Anthony and Patty face as a Black dancer and a woman writer, respectively, and the open secret of gay culture in the theater world. Her loose, elegant figures recall Jules Feiffer's cartoon dancers, and she mixes up art styles to suggest different forms of dance: classical and experimental ballet, Broadway hoofing (a style of tap dancing), or partiers dancing to rock music in clubs. The visual fluidity provides the right look for the story of a man who seeks freedom through his art and declares, "I never want to be rigid." It's a showstopper.
