The Show Won’t Go On: The Most Shocking Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage

Today’s post on The Show Won’t Go On: The Most Shocking Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage by Jeff Abraham and Burt Kearns. It is 232 pages long including notes and is published by Chicago Review Press. The cover is a stage with a grim reaper in the center. There is foul language, no sex, and violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book -  There has never been a show business book like quite like The Show Won’t Go On, the first comprehensive study of a bizarre phenomenon: performs who died onstage. The Show Won’t Go On covers almost every genre of entertainment, and is full of unearthed anecdotes, exclusive interviews, colorful characters, and ironic twists. With dozens of heart- stopping stories, it’s the perfect book to dip into on any page.

Review – We get all kinds stories in this book from accidents and heart attacks to suicide and murder. Abraham and Kearns are passionate about these stories giving the reader insight into the person's life before their deaths and then telling the stories of their tragic demise. While the stories are full of interesting details, it never gets too graphic, as the stories themselves are not too long. As the pieces are not very lengthy the narratives did not get in depth and we get lost in the details.  All the performing arts are covered in this book from theater to radio and TV. Some of the stories are tongue in cheek, the authors never mock the person themselves or what happened to them, just pointing out at the oddities around their deaths. I had fun reading this book and I would recommend it.

I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.