Table of Contents

List of illustrations; Introduction William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird; Part I. Adaptations and Transformations: Before 1940: 1. American musical theatre before the twentieth century Katherine K. Preston; 2. Birth pangs, growing pains, and sibling rivalry: musical theatre in New York, 1900–1920 Orly Leah Krasner; 3. Romance, nostalgia, and nevermore: American and British operetta in the 1920s William A. Everett; 4. Images of African-Americans: African-American musical theatre, Show Boat, and Porgy and Bess John Graziano; 5. The melody (and the words) linger on: American musical comedies of the 1920s and 1930s Geoffrey Block; Part II. Maturations and Formulations: 1940 to 1970: 6. 'We Said We Wouldn't Look Back': British musical theatre, 1935–1960 John Snelson; 7. The coming of the musical play: Rodgers and Hammerstein Ann Sears; 8. The successors of Rodgers and Hammerstein from the 1940s through to the 1960s Thomas L. Riis and Ann Sears with William A. Everett; 9. Musical sophistication on Broadway: Kurt Weill and Leonard Bernstein Bruce D. McClung and Paul R. Laird; Part III. Evolutions and Integrations: After 1970: 10. Stephen Sondheim and the musical of the outsider Jim Lovensheimer; 11. Choreographers, directors, and the fully integrated musical Paul R. Laird; 12. Distant cousin or fraternal twin? Analytical approaches to the film musical Graham Wood; 13. From Hair to Rent: is rock a four-letter word on Broadway? Scott Warfield; 14. The megamusical and beyond: the creation, internationalization and impact of a genre Paul Prece and William A. Everett.

Promotional Information

An accessible survey of one of the liveliest and most popular forms of musical performance.

About the Author

William A. Everett is Assistant Professor of Musicology at the Conservatory of Music, University of Missouri-Kansas City. His articles and reviews have appeared in a number of journals including American Music, Opera Quarterly, and the Journal of the American Viola Society and he is also the author of British Piano Trios, Quartets, and Quintets, 1850–1950: A Checklist (2000). Paul R. Laird is Associate Professor of Musicology in the Dept of Music and Dance, University of Kansas. He is the author of Towards a History of the Spanish Villancico (1997), and Leonard Bernstein: A Guide to Research (2002), and co-editor with Craig H. Russell of Res Musicae: Essays in Honor of James W. Pruett (2001).

Reviews

'This is a work of considerable genius … intelligent, incisive, informed yet immensely readable.' Sheridan Morley

'… if you need one book on musical theatre, make it this one.' Music Teacher