Harry B. Smith was the most prolific writer of librettos for the American musical theatre in history, with nearly half of his 300 works actually opening in New York City. In addition, Smith was instrumental in adapting and popularizing foreign musicals in America, significantly influencing writing and composing styles of American shows. He worked with every major composer in America between 1880 and 1920, and consequently this examination of his work and process is highly instructive of the history of the American musical.

This biography tells the story of Alice May, a touring prima donna in the nineteenth century who travelled from England to Australia, New Zealand, India and the US, taking part in pioneering performances of the popular light operas of the day. Along the way she took part in many premieres, including the first production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Sorcerer and the first authorised American production of The Mikado. This colourful life story will appeal to theatre historians, fans of the melodrama, burlesque, and the musical stage.

Hamilton opened on Broadway in 2015 and quickly became one of the hottest tickets the industry has ever seen. Lin-Manuel Miranda - who wrote the book, lyrics, and music, and created the title role - adapted the show from Ron Chernow's biography Alexander Hamilton. Although it seems an unlikely source for a Broadway musical, Miranda found a liminal space where the life that Hamilton led and the issues that he confronted came alive more than two centuries later while also commenting on contemporary life in the United States and how we view our nation's history. With a score largely based on rap and drawing on other aspects of hip-hop culture, and staged with actors of color playing the white Founding Fathers, Hamilton has much to say about race in the United States today and in our past, but at the same time it leaves important things insufficiently explained, such as the role of women and people of color in Hamilton's time. Dueling Grounds: Revolution and Revelation in the Musical Hamilton is a volume that combines the work of theater scholars and practitioners, musicologists, and scholars in such fields as ethnomusicology, history, gender studies, and economics in a multi-faceted approach to the show's varied uses of liminality, looking at its creation, casting philosophy, dance and movement, costuming, staging, direction, lyrics, music, marketing, and how aspects of race, gender, and class fit into the show and its production. Demonstrating that there is much to celebrate, as well as challenging issues to confront concerning Hamilton, Dueling Grounds is an uncompromising look at one of the most important musicals of the century.

Leslie Stuart was one of the leading composers of English-language musical theatre in the years around 1900. His greatest musical comedy success, Floradora, was a hit in America and made him rich. Stuart's subsequent extravagant spending on gambling, drinking and entertaining, as well as his generous gifts to the needy, left him bankrupt. This book sets out the facts of Stuart's life, increases awareness of his achievements, and tells the fascinating story of his rise and fall from fame.

A colourful biography of William B. Gill, a famous musical-comedy playwright and comedy performer of the late 19th century who is now mostly forgotten, but who changed the course of American musical theater. Gill began his career as a comedic actor in the coalfields of Australia, then performed in India and England before finally going to the United States, and achieving fame as one of the most popular playwrights of his day.

The Show Makers are twelve of the most creative and influential directors of the contemporary musical theatre. Lawrence Thelen creates lively portraits of theatre people at work. James Lapine's early involvement with photography becomes an influence on Sunday in the Park with George. Harold Prince's early desire to be a playwright id rechanneled into directing. George C. Wolfe speaks of the ongoing involvement of black artist with musicals since the last century. Jerome Robbins, in his final interview, on collaboration and the role of dance inthe musical. Lawrence Thelen's book is part theatre history, part interview volume, part celebration. Richly anecdotal, it communicates the passion and joy that motivate our wizards of the musical stage.

This book clarifies the musical dramaturgy of comedy writer and musician Luiz Carlos Martins Penna (1815-48) - a notion that encompasses both the theatrical text and its performance. The corpus for this analysis is composed of twelve comedies by Martins Penna written between 1833 and 1846, divided into three groups, which I have called Lundu, Aria, and Alleluia. The sound universe made up by the three groups of comedies covers African-Brazilian genres and musical-choreographic styles (batuque, fado, lundu, miudinho, muquirao), the transnational urban popular universe (lundu, tirana, quadrilha, marcha, waltz, caxuxa, tonadilla, polka), and modinhas and Italian opera, in addition to romantic concertos, Gregorian chant and Iberian religious theater (loas). To evaluate the multiple meanings acquired by the musical allusions inserted into the comedy texts and theatrical performances, this research reveals the network which included the author, actors, theater owners, publishers and the public, and other agents, such as black Catholic irmandades (brotherhoods), Freemasonry, and institutions linked to the imperial government. The sound universe of the comedies of Martins Penna are compared to the comedic axes of the Western theatrical tradition (a study of situations and characters) and the axes of performance (solo and chorus), contemplating the relationship between the repertoires written by Martins Penna and the repertoires of Brazilians and Portuguese artists, a mix of actors, singers and dancers, who performed in his comedies. The research questions the notion of authorship and reveals the importance of the partnership between theatrical writers, artists and publishers, through which the comedies of Martins Penna have reached the second half of the nineteenth century through the present.

This book can show anyone how to stage any musical show on any budget. It is a step-by-step guidebook for producing a successful show for young performers. Every aspect of theatrical production from characterization and costumes to insurance and fire regulations is included in this comprehensive text. Includes information on teaching theatrical basics, casting, rehearsals, preparing scenes, costumes, makeup, scenery, props, lighting, sound, publicity and much more. An invaluable guide for teaching acting, singing and dancing skills. Useful for both novice and experienced directors of musical and non-musical play productions.

The Golden Age of American Musical Theatre: 1943-1965 provides synopses, cast and production credits, song titles, and other pertinent information for over 180 musicals from Oklahoma to On A Clear Day You Can See Forever. Concentrating on a 22-year span, this book lists both commercial successes and flops of the Golden Age-when the musicals presented on Broadway showcased timeless, memorable tunes, sophisticated comedy, and the genius of creative artists like Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, George Abbott, Moss Hart, Angela Lansbury, Robert Preston, and many others. After an introduction and an overview of the history of Broadway, Naden offers a chronological timeline of the Golden Age musicals in America. She then presents details, in succeeding chapters, about the shows, the stars (on and off stage), the theatres, and the awards, beginning with an alphabetical listing of shows. Each show entry supplies the title, opening date, theatre, number of performances, primary cast and crew, and a plot synopsis, as well as other interesting data about the show, such as the awards won. Additional details about well-known actors, singers, composers, lyricists, directors, and choreographers of the period are provided, including birth and death dates, birth cities, born names, a brief biography, and award nominations and wins. Finishing with a bibliography and an index, this book is beneficial to anyone wanting to know more about one of the richest periods in Broadway history.

Stephen Sondheim is arguably the most important writer for the American musical stage today, the equivalent in his field of Miller, Albee, O'Neill, and Williams. Yet he has rarely been treated seriously within the academy.Reading Stephen Sondheim: A Collection of Critical Essays is an attempt to remedy that situation. Bringing together scholars and critics from a wide variety of literary and theoretical perspectives, this book undertakes to examine all of Sondheim's major productions and themes.

In a small town in the Old West, the mayor can't keep his people from running away or dying at the hands of the local brute. And just when things can't get any worse, an omen predicts that a demon ghost might soon return to possess one of the town's few remaining people, and then to ravage the rest. Which tyrant will be more awful, the demon or the brute? And assuming the mayor can't save the day - for it seems he can't do much - will Catalina, the town vagrant, be the one who steps up? Tumacho considers hope in the face of evil, the community struggle to act, and demon cuisine, all in a deadpan ode to comedies of yore.

Mixing a Musical: Broadway Theatrical Sound Techniques, Second Edition pulls the curtain back on one of the least understood careers in live theatre: the role and responsibilities of the sound technician. This comprehensive book encompasses every position from shop crew labor to assistant designer to sound board operator and everything in between. Written in a clear and easy to read style, and illustrated with real-world examples of personal experience and professional interviews, Slaton shows you how to mix live theatre shows from the basics of equipment and set ups, using sound levels to creating atmosphere, emotion and tension to ensure a first rate performance every time. This new edition gives special attention to mixing techniques and practices. And, special features of the book include interviews with some of today's most successful mixers and designers.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical "South Pacific" has remained a mainstay of the American musical theater since it opened in 1949, and its powerful message about racial intolerance continues to resonate with twenty-first century audiences.
Drawing on extensive research in the Rodgers and the Hammerstein papers, including Hammerstein's personal notes on James A. Michener's Tales of the South Pacific, Jim Lovensheimer offers a fascinating reading of "South Pacific" that explores the show's complex messages and demonstrates how the presentation of those messages changed throughout the creative process. Indeed, the author shows how Rodgers and especially Hammerstein continually refined and softened the theme of racial intolerance until it was more acceptable to mainstream Broadway audiences. Likewise, Lovensheimer describes the treatment of gender and colonialism in the musical, tracing how it both reflected and challenged early Cold War Era American norms. The book also offers valuable background to the writing of "South Pacific," exploring the earlier careers of both Rodgers and Hammerstein, showing how they frequently explored serious social issues in their other works, and discussing their involvement in the political movements of their day, such as Hammerstein's founding membership in the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League. Finally, the book features many wonderful appendices, including two that compare the original draft and final form of the classic songs "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out-a My Hair" and "I'm In Love With a Wonderful Guy."
Thoroughly researched and compellingly written, this superb book offers a rich, intriguing portrait of a Broadway masterpiece and the era in which it was created.

Musical theatre students and performers are frequently asked to learn musical material in a short space of time; sight-read pieces in auditions; collaborate with accompanists; and communicate musically with peers, directors, music directors and choreographers. Many of these students and performers will have had no formal musical training. This book offers a series of lessons in music fundamentals, including theory, sight-singing and aural tests, giving readers the necessary skills to navigate music and all that is demanded of them, without having had a formal music training. It focuses on the skills required of the musical theatre performer and draws on musical theatre repertoire in order to connect theory with practice. Throughout the book, each musical concept is laid out clearly and simply with helpful hints and reminders. The author takes the reader back to basics to ensure full understanding of each area. As the concepts begin to build on one another, the format and process is kept the same so that readers can see how different aspects interrelate. Through introducing theoretical ideas and putting each systematically into practice with sight-singing and ear-training, the students gain a much deeper and more integrated understanding of the material, and are able to retain it, using it in voice lessons, performance classes and their professional lives. The book is published alongside a companion website, which offers supporting material for the aural skills component and gives readers the opportunity to drill listening exercises individually and at their own pace. Music Fundamentals for Musical Theatre allows aspirational performers - and even those who aren't enrolled on a course - to access the key components of music training that will be essential to their careers.

A Chorus Line, the biggest Broadway hit of its generation, is returning to Times Square in a major fall 2006 revival. The show is based on a remarkable series of taped discussions made in the mid 1970s with some of the top "gypsies" (veteran Broadway dancers), many of whom went on to play characters based on themselves in the Tony- and Pulitzer-winning musical. In many ways, On the Line: The Creation of "A Chorus Line" is a continuation of the show itself. In this collective oral history, the 19 original cast members tell how they got involved with the project, how they labored through the months of workshops that shaped it, and what its success has meant for their lives and careers. They paint intimate and frank portraits of co-creators Michael Bennett, Joseph Papp, Ed Kleban - and each other. Originally published in 1990, the book has been updated to continue telling their stories over the past 16 years. Wayne Cilento ("I Can Do That") has become a Tony-winning choreographer of shows like Wicked and Aida; Kelly Bishop ("Can the adults smoke?") has become a TV star; Trish Garland has become a California fitness guru, and so forth.

Musical Theatre: A History is a new revised edition of a proven core text for college and secondary school students - and an insightful and accessible celebration of twenty-five centuries of great theatrical entertainment. As an educator with extensive experience in professional theatre production, author John Kenrick approaches the subject with a unique appreciation of musicals as both an art form and a business. Using anecdotes, biographical profiles, clear definitions, sample scenes and select illustrations, Kenrick focuses on landmark musicals, and on the extraordinary talents and business innovators who have helped musical theatre evolve from its roots in the dramas of ancient Athens all the way to the latest hits on Broadway and London's West End. Key improvements to the second edition: * A new foreword by Oscar Hammerstein III, a critically acclaimed historian and member of a family with deep ties to the musical theatre, is included * The 28 chapters are reformatted for the typical 14 week, 28 session academic course, as well as for a two semester, once-weekly format, making it easy for educators to plan a syllabus and reading assignments. * To make the book more interactive, each chapter includes suggested listening and reading lists, designed to help readers step beyond the printed page to experience great musicals and performers for themselves. A comprehensive guide to musical theatre as an international phenomenon, Musical Theatre: A History is an ideal textbook for university and secondary school students.

Victorian Vocalists is a masterful and entertaining collection of 100 biographies of mid- to late-19th-century singers and stars. Kurt Ganzl paints a vivid picture of the Victorian operatic and concert world, revealing the backgrounds, journeys, successes, failures and misdemeanours of these singers. This volume is not only an outstanding reference work for anyone interested in vocalists of the era, but also a compelling, meticulously researched picture of life in the vast shark tank that was Victorian music.

WhenYou Really Got Me exploded on Swinging London in 1964, the Kinks forever changed the course of rockn roll. Ray Davies and Joe Penhall's Olivier Award-winning Sunny Afternoon (2014) covers the bands formative years of 1964-7, when four working- class North London lads broke through to become one of the most unlikely and influential rock bands of the 1960s. Mixing the comic adventures ofDave the Rave with the touching introspection of Ray's sometimes fragile psyche, Joe Penhall's script weaves Ray Davies songs, both the hits and lesser-known works, into one of the finest jukebox musicals of the new millennium. Drawing on a wealth of background material, John Fleming examines the blend of events and songs selected, reconsidering the relationship between biography and drama to shed new light on the Kinks and the musical that tells their story.

"An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him,The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him." - Henry George Bernard Shaw famously refused to permit any play of his "to be degraded into an operetta or set to any music except its own." Allowing his beloved Pygmalion to be supplanted by a comic opera was therefore unthinkable; yet Lerner and Loewe transformed it into My Fair Lady (1956), a musical that was to delight audiences and critics alike. By famously reversing Shaw's original ending, the show even dared to establish a cunningly romantic ending. Keith Garebian delves into the libretto for a fresh take, and explores biographies of the show's principal artists to discover how their roles intersected with real life. Rex Harrison was an alpha male onstage and off, Julie Andrews struggled with herchaste diva image, and the direction of the sexually ambiguous Moss Hartcontributed to the musical's sexual coding.

Large mixed cast of children and adults. May be played by 5m 5f, plus extras. Various simple settings on an open stage E. Nesbit's well-loved tale of the three Victorian children sent to live in the countryside with their mother after their father has been disgraced for supposedly betraying his country's secrets is brought vividly to life in this new adaptation, losing nothing of the original spirit of humor, tension, adventure and the final triumph of good over evil. The addition of songs to the action helps to highlight in particular Bobbie's rite of passage to adulthood from "Christmas Is Here!" and "Posh Talk" to "Nothing to Fear" and "Nearly Autumn".

In this personal and opinionated book Tom Hischak takes a close look at what happens when a Broadway musical goes to Hollywood, and less often when Hollywood comes to Broadway. The musicals discussed range from The Desert Song (1927), the first sound film of a Broadway musical, to Chicago, the 2002 film made from the 1975 Broadway hit. Film musicals that became Broadway shows range from Lili (1953) to Never Gonna Dance (2003). The book assumes a basic familiarity with famous musicals (for example the plot of My Fair Lady is summed up in a sentence or two) but lesser known works are fully explained. One chapter looks at British musicals that were popular in New York and were later filmed with Hollywood connections. Also included is a Directory that gives credits, names, and songs for both the stage and screen version for all the musicals discussed. Appendices offer statistical data on musicals, and there is an extensive Bibliography.

Carousel (1945), with music by Richard Rodgers and the book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, was their second collaboration following the surprising success of Oklahoma! (1943). They worked again with Theresa Helburn and Lawrence Langner of the Theatre Guild (producers), Rouben Mamoulian (director), and Agnes de Mille (choreographer). But with Oklahoma! still running to sell-out houses, they needed to do something quite different. Based on a play, Liliom (1909), by the Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnar, Carousel took Broadway musical theater in far darker directions because of its subject matter-the protagonist, Billy Bigelow, is wholly an anti-hero-and also given its extensive music that some claimed came close to opera. The action is shifted from a gritty working-class suburb of Budapest to the New England coast (Maine), but the themes remain the same as two social misfits try to survive harsh economic times. Billy Bigelow is unemployed, prone to domestic violence, and dies in the course of committing a robbery; Julie Jordan sticks by him through thick and thin; and the show seeks some manner of redemption for both of them as Billy is given a day back on earth to do some good for his wife and their daughter. Troubling though these matters are nowadays, they fit squarely in the context of a country moving through the end of World War II to an uncertain future. Not for nothing had composers such as Giacomo Puccini and Kurt Weill already tried to persuade Molnar to release his play. It also led Rodgers and Hammerstein to new heights: songs such as "If I Loved You," Billy's "Soliloquy," and "You'll Never Walk Alone" transformed the American musical. In this book, we discover how and why they came about, and exactly what Carousel was trying to achieve.

(Applause Libretto Library). "Richly illustrated, it is ideal for fans of the show, as well as admirers of musical theatre." Variety * "Anybody who has seen the show (who hasn't?) should read the book" Entertainment Today * "The perfect present for any Fantasticks fans." Cleveland Plain Dealer * "A valuable resource. Recommended for all collections." Choice

The music of Broadway is one of America's most unique and popular calling cards. In Broadway to Main Street: How Show Tunes Enchanted America, author Laurence Maslon tells the story of how the most beloved songs of the American Musical Theater made their way from the Theater District to living rooms across the country. The crossroads where the music of Broadway meets popular culture is an expansive and pervasive juncture throughout most of the twentieth century-from sheet music to radio broadcasts to popular and original cast recordings-and continues to influence culture today through television, streaming, and the Internet. The original Broadway cast album-from the 78 rpm recording of Oklahoma! to the digital download of Hamilton-is one of the most successful, yet undervalued, genres in the history of popular recording. The challenge of capturing musical narrative with limited technology inspired the imagination of both the recording industry and millions of listeners: between 1949 and 1969, fifteen different original cast albums hit number one on the popular music charts, ultimately tallying more weeks at number one than all of the albums by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and The Beatles combined. The history of Broadway music is also the history of American popular music; the technological, commercial, and marketing forces of communications and media over the last century were inextricably bound up in the enterprise of bringing the musical gems of New York's Theater District to living rooms along Main Streets across the nation. The story of this commercial and emotional phenomenon is told here in fullfrom the imprimatur of sheet music from Broadway in the early 20th century to the renaissance of Broadway music in the digital age, folding in the immense impact of show music on American culture and in the context of the recording industry, popular tastes, and our shared national identity. A book which connects cherished cultural artifacts to the emotional narratives at the core of American popular music, Broadway to Main Street: How Show Tunes Enchanted America is an ideal companion for all fans of American Musical Theater and popular music.