Musical Theatre: A History

Musical Theatre: A History presents a comprehensive history of stage musicals from the earliest accounts of the ancient Greeks and Romans, for whom songs were common elements in staging, to Jacques Offenbach in Paris during the 1840s, to Gilbert and Sullivan in the UK, to the rise of music halls and vaudeville traditions in America, and eventually to ?Broadway?s Golden Age? with George M. Cohan, Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, Oscar Hammerstein, Leondard Bernstein, and Andrew Lloyd Webber. The 21st century has also brought a popular new wave of musicals to the Broadway stage, from ?The Producers? to ?Spamalot.? Musical Theatre: A History covers it all, from the opening number to the curtain call, offering readers the most up-to-date history of the art form.

CONTENIDO:

Acknowledgments

Dedication

Introduction: "Let?s Start at the Very Beginning..."

1. Ancient times to 1850: "Playgoers, I Bid You Welcome!"

2. Continental operetta (1840-1900):"Typical of France"

3. American explorations (1624-1880): "The Music of Something Beginning"

4. Gilbert & Sullivan (1880-1900): "Object All Sublime"

5. The birth of musical comedy (1880-1899): "It Belong?d To My Father Before I Was Born"

6. A new century (1900-1913): "Whisper of How I?m Yearning"

7. American ascendance (1914-1919): "In a Class Beyond Compare"

8. Al Jolson: "The World?s Greatest Entertainer"

9. The jazz age (1920-1929): "I Want to Be Happy"

10. Depression Era Miracles (1930-1940): "Trouble?s Just a Bubble"

11. A new beginning (1940-1950): "They Couldn?t Pick a Better Time"

12. Broadway takes stage (1950-1963): "The Street Where You Live"

13. Rock rolls in (1960-1970): "Soon It?s Gonna Rain"

14. New directions (1970-1979): "Vary My Days"

15. Spectacles and boardrooms: "As If We Never Said Goodbye"

16. Musical comedy returns (The 2000s): "Where Did We Go Right?"

Suggested Reading: An Annotated Bibliography

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