Every week, a Broadway revue : the Tamiment Playhouse, 1921-1960 /

Drawn largely from archival holdings and personal interviews, this study chronicles a resident summer theater (1921-60) that operated at Camp Tamiment, an adult summer camp in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, supported, until its infrastructure failed, by The Rand School of Social Science, a Socialist Party organ founded in 1906. Although related to other "Borscht Belt" camp and resort venues, the Tamiment Playhouse was unique in developing full-stage productions (revues, book shows, showcases) with resident companies of performing artists and support staff, including writers, composers, directors, and choreographers. It became a major training ground for talent and an outlet for theater, dance, film, and television, helping to develop such disparate talent as Imogene Coca, Danny Kaye, Carol Burnett, Barbara Cook, Larry Kert, and Dick Shawn, as well as writers such as Neil Simon and Woody Allen. Most useful in LoMonaco's study is the detailed explication of how various shows were developed and presented. As a limited, expensive examination of a specific aspect of American culture, this clear, insightful study will be of most value to large collections and special holdings on American theater, performance, and social or cultural history. Illustrations. D. B. Wilmeth; Brown University