A time to learn. A time to rebel. A time to love. A time to burn. A group of teenagers - silenced and controlled by a censorious society - discovers a new world of feeling and freedom, with beautiful and devastating consequences. Inspired by German playwright Frank Wedekind's once-banned and groundbreaking play from 1891, Spring Awakening tells a story of adolescent anarchy, set to one of the best-loved musical scores of the twenty-first century. Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik's musical opened in New York City in 2006, and London in 2009, and won eight Tony Awards and four Olivier Awards, including both prizes for Best New Musical. This new edition of the complete book and lyrics - the first to be published in the UK - features four pages of colour photographs and exclusive bonus material by writers Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, and members of the original Broadway and West End casts: Aneurin Barnard, Jonathan Groff, Evelyn Hoskins, Lea Michele and Iwan Rheon. It was published alongside the first London revival at the Almeida Theatre in 2021, directed by Rupert Goold, which won the 2022 Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical.

The American musical has achieved and maintained relevance to more people in America than any other performance-based art. This thoughtful history of the genre, intended for readers of all stripes, offers probing discussions of how American musicals, especially through their musical numbers, advance themes related to American national identity.

Written by a musicologist and supported by a wealth of illustrative audio examples (on the book's website), the book examines key historical antecedents to the musical, including the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, nineteenth and early twentieth-century American burlesque and vaudeville, Tin Pan Alley, and other song types. It then proceeds thematically, focusing primarily on fifteen mainstream shows from the twentieth century, with discussions of such notable productions as "Show Boat" (1927), "Porgy and Bess" (1935), "Oklahoma " (1943), "West Side Story" (1957), "Hair" (1967), "Pacific Overtures" (1976), and "Assassins" (1991).

The shows are grouped according to their treatment of themes that include defining America, mythologies, counter-mythologies, race and ethnicity, dealing with World War II, and exoticism. Each chapter concludes with a brief consideration of available scholarship on related subjects; an extensive appendix provides information on each show discussed, including plot summaries and song lists, and a listing of important films, videos, audio recordings, published scores, and libretti associated with each musical.

Hollywood's conversion to sound in the 1920s created an early peak in the film musical, following the immense success of The Jazz Singer. The opportunity to synchronize moving pictures with a soundtrack suited the musical in particular, since the heightened experience of song and dance drew attention to the novelty of the technological development. Until the near-collapse of the genre in the 1960s, the film musical enjoyed around thirty years of development, as landmarks such as The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St Louis, Singin' in the Rain, and Gigi showed the exciting possibilities of putting musicals on the silver screen. The Oxford Handbook of Musical Theatre Screen Adaptations traces how the genre of the stage-to-screen musical has evolved, starting with screen adaptations of operettas such as The Desert Song and Rio Rita, and looks at how the Hollywood studios in the 1930s exploited the publication of sheet music as part of their income. Numerous chapters examine specific screen adaptations in depth, including not only favorites such as Annie and Kiss Me, Kate but also some of the lesser-known titles like Li'l Abner and Roberta and problematic adaptations such as Carousel and Paint Your Wagon. Together, the chapters incite lively debates about the process of adapting Broadway for the big screen and provide models for future studies.

Theatre as Human Action: An Introduction to Theatre Arts, Third Edition is designed for the college student who may be unacquainted with many plays and has seen a limited number of theatre productions. Focusing primarily on four plays, this textbook aims to inform the student about theatre arts, stimulate interest in the art form, lead to critical thinking about theatre, and prepare the student to be a more informed and critical theatregoer. The four plays central to this book are the tragedy Macbeth, the landmark African American drama A Raisin in the Sun, the American comedy classic You Can't Take It with You, and-new to this edition-the contemporary hip-hop musical Hamilton. At the beginning of the text, each play is described with plot synopses (and suggested video versions), and then these four representative works are referred to throughout the book. In addition to looking at both the theoretical and practical aspects of theatre arts-from the nature of theatre and drama to how it reflects society-the author also explains the processes that playwrights, actors, designers, directors, producers, and critics go through. In addition to Hamilton, this edition includes full color images throughout, as well as revised chapters and expanded and updated material on the technical aspects of theatre, coverage of children's theatre and British theatre, the role of drama as therapy, and the importance of diversity in theatre today. Structured into ten chapters, each looking at a major area or artist-and concluding with the audience and critics-the unique approach of Theatre as Human Action thoroughly addresses all of the major topics to be found in an introduction to theatre text.