The greatest partnership in the history of the musical, captured in print, wonderfully illustrated. For this new edition, the book has been completely rewritten and substantially expanded to include material on Rodgers' early career with Lorenz Hart as well as his later work, and also features recollections from such theatrical titans as Sheldon Harnick, Martin Charnin, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents. Also, a completely new appendix reveals the details of the continuing worldwide phenomenon of Rodgers and Hammerstein's work up to and including the 2002 centennial year for Rodgers.

Rida Johnson Young (ca. 1869-1926) was one of the most prolific female playwrights of her time, as well as a lyricist and librettist in the musical theater. She wrote more than thirty full-length plays, operettas, and musical comedies, 500 songs, and four novels, including Naughty Marietta, Lady Luxury, The Red Petticoat, and When Love is Young . Despite her extensive output, no significant study of her work has been produced. This book looks at her musical theater works with in-depth analyses of her librettos and lyrics, as well as her working relationships with other writers, performers, and producers, particularly Lee and J. J. Shubert. Using archival materials such as original typescripts, correspondence, and reviews, the book contextualizes her work in the early twentieth century professional theater and provides a window into the standard practices of writing and production of the era.

In this deliciously revealing oral history of Broadway from World War II through the early 1980s, more than one hundred theater veterans-including Carol Channing, Hal Prince, Donna McKechnie, Hal Holbrook, Andrea McArdle, and Al Hirschfeld-deliver the behind-the-scenes story of the hits, the stars, the feuds, and the fiascoes. Along the way there are evocations of the great comedians and dramatic actors who had that indefinable magic that made them stand out above the rest. With verve, love, and passion, this book gives us the story of more than half a century of great theater-from the inside out.

In 1970, renowned writer-composer-lyricist Leslie Bricusse adapted the classic Charles Dickens tale, A Christmas Carol, into the hit screen musical "Scrooge!". Now available as a charming stage musical, Scrooge! has enjoyed a hugely successful tour of England and a season at London's Dominion Theatre starring the late Anthony Newly. Included are six new songs not performed in the film. Now this sure-fire audience pleaser is available in two versions: as a full-length musical and in a 55-minute adaptation that is ideal for small theatre groups and schools, where it can be performed as a short play or as part of a seasonal concert.Large flexible cast

It would be difficult, indeed, to imagine anyone more qualified to give us a celebration, from the perspective of an insider, of the Broadway musical. From the first run of "Guys and Dolls" in 1950 to the recent debut of "Rent," Stuart Ostrow, a prot DEGREESD'eg DEGREESD'e of the great composer-lyricist Frank Loesser, has been personally involved in many of the major Broadway productions of our time. The steadily growing number of fans of the Great White Way will delight in his reminiscences about the shows that have shaped musical theater, such as "Hello Dolly," "Funny Girl," "Man of LaMancha," "Cabaret," "1776," and "M. Butterfly"--to name just a few.

Readers of "A Producer's Broadway Journey" will certainly be entertained by OstroW's behind-the-scenes anecdotes of Bob Fosse, Barbra Streisand, Betty Buckley, Cole Porter, Lerner and Loewe, Hal Prince, Ethel Merman, and many other legends encountered in his accomplished career. But in addition to the tales or re-writes, stand-ins, near-disasters, and moments of theatrical magic, the author also provides a unique historical perspective on almost half a century of the musical.

Designed to aid the student, librarian, teacher, or professional singer, this annotated bibliography provides access to more than 500 books, journals, and electronic resources. Included as well are chapters listing dictionaries and encyclopedias for opera and musical theater, biographical sources, guides to vocal literature and repertoire, and resources for vocal pedagogy and for the stage. Equally helpful are sources that list plots and synopses, translations, diction, travel and education.

Providing ready access to a variety of topics and resources necessary for vocal study, this important reference will introduce music students to reliable, essential sources for their study, assist teachers and coaches in finding reference tools, and assist reference librarians in locating sources for patrons. The alphabetical organization within subject makes this reference easy to understand and easy to access. Three indexes allow for convenient cross-referencing.

"A vivid page-turner" (NPR) detailing the rise, fall, and redemption of Broadway-its stars, its biggest shows, its producers, and all the drama, intrigue, and power plays that happened behind the scenes. "A rich, lovely, debut history of New York theater in the 1970s and eighties" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Razzle Dazzle is a narrative account of the people and the money and the power that turned New York's gritty back alleys and sex-shops into the glitzy, dazzling Great White Way. In the mid-1970s Times Square was the seedy symbol of New York's economic decline. Its once shining star, the renowned Shubert Organization, was losing theaters to make way for parking lots and losing money. Bernard Jacobs and Jerry Schoenfeld, two ambitious board members, saw the crumbling company was ripe for takeover and staged a coup and staved off corporate intrigue, personal betrayals and criminal investigations. Once Jacobs and Schoenfeld solidified their power, they turned a collapsed theater-owning holding company into one of the most successful entertainment empires in the world, spearheading the revitalization of Broadway and the renewal of Times Square. "For those interested in the business behind the greasepaint, at a riveting time in Broadway's and New York's history, this is the ticket" (USA TODAY). Michael Riedel tells the stories of the Shubert Organization and the shows that re-built a city in grand style-including Cats, A Chorus Line, and Mamma Mia!-revealing the backstage drama that often rivaled what transpired onstage, exposing bitter rivalries, unlikely alliances, and inside gossip. "The trouble with Razzle Dazzle is...you can't put the damn thing down" (Huffington Post).

This book situates the production of The Boy Friend and the Players' Theatre in the context of a post-war London and reads The Boy Friend, and Wilson's later work, as exercises in contemporary camp. It argues for Wilson as a significant and transitional figure both for musical theatre and for modes of homosexuality in the context of the pre-Wolfenden 1950s. Sandy Wilson's The Boy Friend is one of the most successful British musicals ever written. First produced at the Players' Theatre Club in London in 1953 it transferred to the West End and Broadway, making a star out of Julie Andrews and gave Twiggy a leading role in Ken Russell's 1971 film adaptation. Despite this success, little is known about Wilson, a gay writer working in Britain in the 1950s at a time when homosexuality was illegal. Drawing on original research assembled from the Wilson archives at the Harry Ransom Center, this is the first critical study of Wilson as a key figure of 1950s British theatre. Beginning with the often overlooked context of the Players' Theatre Club through to Wilson's relationship to industry figures such as Binkie Beaumont, Noel Coward and Ivor Novello, this study explores the work in the broader history of Soho gay culture. As well as a critical perspective on The Boy Friend, later works such as Divorce Me, Darling!, The Buccaneer and Valmouth are examined as well as uncompleted musical versions of Pygmalion and Goodbye to Berlin to give a comprehensive and original perspective on one of British theatre's most celebrated yet overlooked talents.

'Music and girls are the soul of musical comedy,' one critic wrote, early in the 1940s. But this was the age that wanted more than melody and kickline form its musical shows. The form had been running on empty for too long, as a formula for the assembly of spare parts--star comics, generic loves songs, rumba dancers, Ethel Merman. If Rodgers and Hammerstein hadn't existed, Broadway would have had to invent them; and Oklahoma! and Carousel came along just in time to announce the New Formula for Writing Musicals: Don't have a formula.

Instead, start with strong characters and atmosphere: Oklahoma!'s murderous romantic triangle set against a frontier society that has to learn what democracy is in order to deserve it; or Carousel's dysfunctional family seen in the context of class and gender war.

With the vitality and occasionally outrageous humour that Ethan Mordden's readers take for granted, the author ranges through the decade's classics--Pal Joey, Lady in the Dark, On the Town, Annie Get Your Gun, Finian's Rainbow, Brigadoon, Kiss Me, Kate, South Pacific. He also covers illuminating trivia--the spy thriller The Lady Comes Across, whose star got so into her role that she suffered paranoid hallucinations and had to be hospitalized; the smutty Follow the Girls, damned as 'burlesque with a playbill' yet closing as the longest-run musical in Broadway history; Lute Song, in which Mary Martin and Nancy Reagan were Chinese; and the first 'concept' musicals, Allegro and Love Life. Amid the fun, something revolutionary occurs. The 1920s created the musical and the 1930s gave it politics. In the 1940s, it found its soul.

Few musicals have had the impact of Lerner and Loewe's timeless classic "My Fair Lady." Sitting in the middle of an era dominated by such seminal figures as Rodgers and Hammerstein, Frank Loesser, and Leonard Bernstein, "My Fair Lady" not only enjoyed critical success similar to that of its rivals but also had by far the longest run of a Broadway musical up to that time. It remains a staple of the musical theater canon today, an oft-staged show in national, regional, and high school theaters across the country. Using previously-unpublished documents, Dominic McHugh presents a completely new behind-the-scenes look at the five-year creation of the show, revealing the tensions and complex relationships that went into the making of this beloved show. Two detailed chapters describe the show's tortured journey to Broadway, in which Lerner and Loewe were just one of many creative teams trying to turn Shaw's Pygmalion into a musical. A further chapter examines Lerner's different drafts of the script and demonstrates how he managed to retain Shaw's style and meanings while adding layers of his own and finding ways to set some of the scenes to song. Three other chapters go into unprecedented detail about the writing of the score, while the final chapters examine the show's legacy on the stage and in print. Overall, the book helps readers understand what makes this such a special musical.

Dance on the American Musical Theatre Stage: A History chronicles the development of dance, with an emphasis on musicals and the Broadway stage, in the United States from its colonial beginnings to performances of the present day. This book explores the fascinating tug-and-pull between the European classical, folk and social dance imports and America's indigenous dance forms as they met and collided on the popular musical theatre stage. The historical background influenced a specific musical theatre movement vocabulary and a unique choreographic approach that is recognizable today as Broadway style dancing. Throughout the book, a cultural context is woven into the history to reveal how the competing values within American culture, and its attempts as a nation to define and redefine itself, played out through developments in dance on the musical theatre stage. This book is central to the conversation on how dance influences and reflects society, and will be of interest to students and scholars of Musical Theatre, Theatre Studies, Dance and Cultural History.

This volume surveys the development of the American musical during the 20th century by focusing on one of the most important yet least recognized members of the creative team: the lyricist. From George M. Cohan and Irving Berlin through Oscar Hammerstein II, Alan Jay Lerner, Ira Gershwin, Stephen Sondheim, and others, "Word Crazy" examines both well-known and obscure writers who have shaped one of America's most beloved theatrical forms. The author offers an overview of each lyricist's career and works and evaluates his or her strengths, weaknesses, patterns, temperament, and personal vision. The result is an unusual critical history of the Broadway musical that will be of significant interest to students of the theatre as well as to anyone who wishes to learn more about the unique craft of the theatre lyricist.

Beginning with George M. Cohan, the American theatre's first important lyricist, and continuing up into the 1980s, the book presents an overall history of the musical theatre during this century. Hischak explores the various trends and movements, from the early operettas through the arrival of jazz, and up through the conceptual musicals of the last 30 years. The treatment is chronological with most chapters focusing on a single lyricist. A bibliography and index complete the volume. By reviewing the careers and works of America's most influential theatre lyricists, Hischak offers a fresh new perspective on the evolution of musical theatre in America.

"Broadway and Corporate Capitalism "examines two overlapping and, in many ways, symbiotic phenomena of early 20th century America--the emergence of the Professional-Managerial Class within American corporate capitalism and the evolution of Broadway. Michael Schwartz shows how the class movements moved--literally and figuratively--to the rhythm of noisy, frenetic farces, highly charged business and sports melodramas, and exuberant musicals. This book brings to life the representative plays, playwrights, actors, critics, and audiences from one of the liveliest periods of Broadway.

This wide-ranging guide introduces (or reintroduces) readers to movie musicals past and present, enabling them to experience the development of this uniquely American art form-and discover films they'll love. This comprehensive guide covers movie musicals from their introduction with the 1927 film The Jazz Singer through 2015 releases. In all, it describes 125 movies, opening up the world of this popular form of entertainment to preteens, teens, and adults alike. An introduction explains the advent of movie musicals; then, in keeping with the book's historical approach, films are presented by decade and year with overviews of advances during particular periods. In this way, the reader not only learns about individual films but can see the big picture of how movie musicals developed and changed over time. For each film covered, the guide offers basic facts-studio, director, songwriters, actors, etc.-as well as a brief plot synopsis. Each entry also offers an explanation of why the movie is noteworthy, how popular it was or wasn't, and the influence the film might have had on later musicals. Sidebars offering brief biographies of important artists appear throughout the book. Shows how the genre developed over time, from the 1920s to the present Shares fascinating insights about musicals with which the reader is already familiar Offers information on many lesser-known musicals Helps readers find film musicals that are similar to those they know and like Introduces important performers, directors, and songwriters Includes photographic stills from famous movie musicals

This encyclopedic reference to the American movie musical identifies and describes the musicals and the artists who made them. Film entries range from the legendary "The" "Jazz" "Singer" in 1927 to "Fantasia" "2000." Artists ranging from Gene Kelly to Elvis Presley, Busby Berkeley, and John Travolta are included, as are musicians as varied as Irving Berlin, Paul Williams, and the Beatles. Entries also detail animated musicals, studios, perettas, rock documentaries, sequels and remakes, and dance movies.

As a reference work or as a book for browsing, this encyclopedia serves as a valuable companion to "Stage It with Music: An Encyclopedic Guide to the American Musical Theatre" (Greenwood, 1993) and will appeal to film scholars and fans alike. Information is cross referenced throughout. A chronological list of musicals and an appendix of Academy Award-winning musicals are included.

Mates shows the musical stage in all its guises--from burlesque to musical comedy to grand opera--from its beginnings in pre-Revolutionary America to the present day. He deals sensitively with the recurrent aesthetic question of popular versus highbrow art and also looks at critical reactions to popular theatrical forms of musical entertainment. He introduces the reader to various types of theatrical companies, the changing repertory, and the many kinds of musical performers who have animated the stage. Mates focuses on the creative relationships between the different forms of opera, the minstrel show and circus, melodrama and dance, burlesque, revue, vaudeville, and musical comedy.

There isn't a jollier show anywhere than this musical version of The Pickwick Papers. It exactly catches the cheerful and good-hearted spirit of the gentleman with the bald head and round glasses who is its hero. the well-loved story, the tuneful music and witty lyrics provide a recipe that can't fail to delight audiences. The famous "If I Ruled the World" is just one of a host of strong numbers, and there is plenty of work for chorus and dancers.6 women, 13 men

A critical survey of Hollywood film musicals from the 1960s to the present. This book examines how, in the post-studio system era, cultural, industrial and stylistic circumstances transformed this once happy-go-lucky genre into one both fluid and cynical enough to embrace the likes of "Rocky Horror" and pave the way for "Cannibal!" and "Moulin Rouge!."

From patriotic "God Bless America" to wistful "White Christmas," Irving Berlin's songs have long accompanied Americans as they fall in love, go to war, and come home for the holidays. Irving Berlin's American Musical Theater is the first book to fully consider this songwriter's immeasurable influence on the American stage. Award-winning music historian Jeffrey Magee chronicles Berlin's legendary theatrical career, providing a rich background to some of the great composer's most enduring songs, from "There's No Business Like Show Business" to "Puttin' on the Ritz." Magee shows how Berlin's early experience singing for pennies made an impression on the young man, who kept hold of that sensibility throughout his career and transformed it into one of the defining attributes of Broadway shows. Magee also looks at darker aspects of Berlin's life, examining the anti-Semitism that Berlin faced and his struggle with depression. Informative, provocative, and full of colorful details, this book will delight song and theater aficionados alike as well as anyone interested in the story of a man whose life and work expressed so well the American dream.

Are you a teacher of musical theatre who struggles to plan and construct lessons? Are you looking for a structured approach to teaching musical theatre to students of all abilities? Do you know your Ivor Novello from your Stephen Sondheim? Despite being one of the most popular forms of performance study, Musical Theatre is often the most difficult to teach due to its part-practical and part-academic approach. With few books on the market directly aimed at teachers, it can be a challenging and daunting task to devise a course of study that takes in the history of the form as well as considering the wider aspects that come together to make a successful musical. A Teacher's Guide to Musical Theatre enables teachers to plan and deliver courses in Musical Theatre with confidence and flair. The unique structure of the chapters guides teachers through key facts and concepts in musical theatre history and offers practical in-class activities for students. From topics for class discussion and essay assignments to journal entries and portfolios to sample test questions, this book is full of practical advice from experienced teachers in the field which make it the idea companion for teachers and instructors on diploma and degree-level courses, as well as those devising courses in part-time performing arts schools. Devised to provide sufficient engaging and inspirational material for an initial term or semester, the book establishes the principles of teaching this relatively new subject and encourages teachers to extend much further into the subject. From The Mikado to Hamilton and everything in between, this book breaks down decades of history into appropriately sized lessons, designed to give students a rounded survey of the subject and an understanding of how musicals work. Offering expert guidance to those with varied fields of expertise and practical experience but limited teaching experience, this book is the only existing guide to structured and stimulating practice.