Showtime. A History of the Broadway Musical Theater

Showtime brings the history of Broadway musicals of the last 150 years to life in a narrative as engaging as the subject itself. Combining original research with shrewd analysis, Larry Stempel examines musicals in their cultural context. Beginning with the scandalous Astor Place Opera House riot of 1849, Showtime traces the growth of musicals from minstrel shows and operettas, through the golden age of Show Boat and Oklahoma!, to such groundbreaking works as Company and Rent. Stempel does not miss a beat: he covers the great creators, stagers and performers whose creativity and innovation have sparked and sustained the appreciation for musical theatre and he lets them speak for themselves. Gracefully narrated and fully documented with the inclusion of seldom-seen photographs, Showtime is the most comprehensive, authoritative history of the Broadway musical available.

CONTENIDO:

Illustrations
Preface


Introduction: Before the curtain

Part one: out of the Nineteenth Century

Chapter 1: Transition stages
The Astor Place Riot
Uncle Tom?s Cabin, the Musical
The Black Crook

Chapter 2: Variety stages
From Minstrelsy to Vaudeville
Harrigan and Hart
Weber and Fields
Williams and Walker

Chapter 3: A transatlantic muse
Operetta: The Golden Age
Light Opera in America
American Light Opera


Part two: Into the Twentieth Century

Chapter 4: The native wit
Cohan and Times Square
Berlin and Tin Pan Alley
Bolton-Wodehouse-Kern: The Princess Theater

Chapter 5: The cult of romance
Operetta: The Silver Age
Romberg and Friml
Show Boat

Chapter 6: A shadow of vulgarity
Revues: Spectacular and Intimate
Musical Comedy/Musical Farce Comedy
Jazz-Age "Jazz"

Chapter 7: Broadway songbook
The Gershwins
Cole Porter
Rodgers and Hart

Chapter 8: The script angle
A Musical Play
Oklahoma!: The Musical Play
Literate Musical Comedy

Chapter 9: Musical theater: the new art
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Lerner and Loewe
Harnick and Bock

Chapter 10: Opera, in our own way
Opera on Broadway
Broadway Opera
West Side Story

Chapter 11: The great american showshop
The Abbott Touch
Harburg?s Circle
A Loesser Orbit
Comden and Green--and Styne


Part three: toward the new millennium

Chapter 12: Away from Broadway
Early Alternative Musicals
The Off Broadway Renaissance
Farther "Off" and Coming Back

Chapter 13: The Metaphor Angle
Cabaret and the Concept Musical
Prince, Sondheim & Co.
Sondheim After Prince

Chapter 14: A dancing place
The Ballet-Directors: De Mille and Robbins
The Hoofer-Directors: Champion and Fosse
A Chorus Line and After

Chapter 15: Distancing effects
Rice, Lloyd Webber, and Rock Opera
Mackintosh and the Megamusical
Disney and the Movical

Chapter 16: Another broadway... another show...
Antimusicals
Sondheim?s Children

Notes
Works Cited
Selected Historical Discography
Credits
Index