It’s the best of Broadway, bound

“Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time” by author Ken Bloom and actor Frank Vlastnik is one of the season’s glossiest and -- at nearly 5 1/2 pounds -- weightiest coffee-table books.

With a lavish eye-candy layout, it offers facts, observations and behind-the-scenes tidbits spanning the history of Broadway from 1903’s “Babes in Toyland” to “The Full Monty” in 2003 -- “ ‘greatest’ not being synonymous with ‘best,’ ” Bloom says.

All the book’s subjective choices, including lesser efforts, he explains, were made for what they say about Broadway’s past, present and future.

The book frames the text around 210 sidebars and 870 photographs, most previously unpublished. Each show’s profile includes the premiere date, theater and number of performances as well as a synopsis and production credits, song lists, anecdotes, quotes and bios.

Extras include “Great Scores From So-So Shows,” “Cast Albums,” “Star Turns,” “T&A;,” “Guilty Pleasures” and “Flops.”

“We didn’t want this to be a dry, textbook history of the American musical,” Bloom says. “We wanted to give a flavor of what Broadway is really like. We also wanted to make the people seem like real people.

“For example, we have Harvey Evans, who for most of his career was a chorus boy. We wanted to salute him because those of us who love musicals and grew up with them have seen these people on stage for 20 or 30 years, and they’re really the heart and soul of Broadway.”

A few excerpts:

The authors, on “Wonderful Town”: The road to success on Broadway is often strewn with the bodies of its creators. A case in point is “Wonderful Town,” regarding the gestation of which director George Abbott proclaimed, “There was more hysterical debate, more acrimony, more tension and more screaming connected with this play than with any other show I was ever involved with.”

Howard Lindsay, who co-wrote “The Sound of Music” book with Russel Crouse, from his letter to the New York Times Magazine: “Much has been written of the success of ‘The Sound of Music’ play and motion picture. Is it immodest of me to point out, because no one else ever does, that Russel Crouse and I had a hand in it?”

Florenz Ziegfeld, referring to “Show Boat’s” chances for success in 1927: “Hammerstein’s book in present shape has not got a chance except with critics. By the public, no, and I have stopped producing for critics and empty houses.”

“1776” producer Stuart Ostrow to creators Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards, when Betty Buckley auditioned: “If you were Thomas Jefferson and hadn’t seen your wife for six months, wouldn’t you finish writing the Declaration of Independence the minute that Betty Buckley walked in the door?”

The authors, on the 1945 premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Carousel”: On opening night, Richard Rodgers, having wrenched his back, saw the show strapped to a stretcher and through a morphine haze.

The authors, on nudity in “The Full Monty”: Rarely has more of a fuss been made over ... um ... so little. To be sure, there were the types that went with their night-vision goggles to catch a microsecond peek of the fellas’ “monties,” but all told [the show] was about as raunchy as a ladies’ auxiliary luncheon, also adding to its wide appeal.