MY LIFE

Best friends Emily and Phil from Long Island looooooove the theatre and spend every cent they have on seeing Broadway shows, particularly Aurora, a “triple threat” of an imaginary musical that inspires the kind of historic mania that only musicals like Rent and Spring Awakening have been able to muster. When Aurora’s time on the Great White Way is threatened, Emily, Phil and a troupe of other devotees set their minds to save it from closing. A theatre junkie herself, Wood packs a truckload of backstage gossip and background information about Broadway and the theatre world to quench the thirsts of any junior musical buff who dreams of living in New York City. Unfortunately, like many Broadway musicals, this backdrop is stronger and much more interesting than either the casting or the plot. Many readers will be struggling to understand the concept of the imaginary Aurora, especially when they’re most likely focusing on the real world of Broadway. Curious subplots do surface, however, such as the questioning of Phil’s sexuality and a mysterious anti-Aurora lurker in a chatroom. Wood’s jangling, crescendo-building prose captures all the harmony of a hit Broadway number, and the momentum of her style may help readers glide over the cheesier bits of the libretto (Fiction. YA)