Synopses & Reviews
The"Broadway Musical" is a unique fusion between drama and music which has become especially important during the 20th century. This new book is a detailed exploration of the evolution and development of this kind of music theatre in North America. Music Theatre traces the development of music theatre from its 18th century European roots, through its growing pains in 19th century America, side by side with such popular forms of entertainment as the minstrel show, burlesque and the revue. The flowering of the true musical comedy is documented, as represented by the Princess Musicals of Jerome Kern and P.G. Wodehouse, which then gave birth to the first enduring masterpiece of American music drama, Kern and Hammerstein's Show Boat. Music Theatre of the 1930s charted new courses of realism and satire in the hands of Cole Porter, the Gershwin Brothers, Rodgers and Hart. Then in 1943, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II revolutionized the form with the innovations of Oklahoma. The book includes sections on Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber and music theatre through the sixties and beyond. This volume is full of history, fascinating people, the shows that made them famous and the music that has stuck.