Our Musicals, Ourselves is the first full-scale social history of the American musical theater from the imported Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas of the late nineteenth century to such recent musicals as The Producers and Urinetown. While many aficionados of the Broadway musical associate it with wonderful, diversionary shows like The Music Man or My Fair Lady, John Bush Jones instead selects musicals for their social relevance and the extent to which they engage, directly or metaphorically, contemporary politics and culture.
Organized chronologically, with some liberties taken to keep together similarly themed musicals, Jones examines dozens of Broadway shows from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present that demonstrate numerous links between what played on Broadway and what played on newspapers' front pages across our nation. He reviews the productions, lyrics, staging, and casts from the lesser-known early musicals (the "gunboat" musicals of the Teddy Roosevelt era and the "Cinderella shows" and "leisure time musicals" of the 1920s) and continues his analysis with better-known shows including Showboat, Porgy and Bess, Oklahoma, South Pacific, West Side Story, Cabaret, Hair, Company, A Chorus Line, and many others.
While most examinations of the American musical focus on specific shows or emphasize the development of the musical as an art form, Jones's book uses musicals as a way of illuminating broader social and cultural themes of the times. With six appendixes detailing the long-running diversionary musicals and a foreword by Sheldon Harnick, the lyricist of Fiddler on the Roof, Jones's comprehensive social history will appeal to both students and fans of Broadway.

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.