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Books > Arts & Architecture > Performing arts > Theatre, drama > Musical theatre
Bob Fosse (1927-1987) is recognized as one of the most significant
figures in post-World War II American musical theater. With his
first Broadway musical, The Pajama Game in 1954, the "Fosse style"
was already fully developed, with its trademark hunched shoulders,
turned-in stance, and stuttering, staccato jazz movements. Fosse
moved decisively into the role of director with Redhead in 1959 and
was a key figure in the rise of the director-choreographer in the
Broadway musical. He also became the only star director of musicals
of his era-a group that included Jerome Robbins, Gower Champion,
Michael Kidd, and Harold Prince-to equal his Broadway success in
films. Following his unprecedented triple crown of show business
awards in 1973 (an Oscar for Cabaret, Emmy for Liza with a Z, and
Tony for Pippin), Fosse assumed complete control of virtually every
element of his projects. But when at last he had achieved complete
autonomy, his final efforts, the film Star 80 and the musical Big
Deal, written and directed by Fosse, were rejected by audiences and
critics. A fascinating look at the evolution of Fosse as
choreographer and director, Big Deal: Bob Fosse and Dance in the
American Musical considers Fosse's career in the context of changes
in the Broadway musical theater over four decades. It traces his
early dance years and the importance of mentors George Abbott and
Jerome Robbins on his work. It examines how each of the important
women in his adult life-all dancers-impacted his career and
influenced his dance aesthetic. Finally, the book investigates how
his evolution as both artist and individual mirrored the social and
political climate of his era and allowed him to comfortably ride a
wave of cultural changes.
SIX the musical by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss has been hailed as,
'the most uplifting piece of new British musical theatre' (The
Evening Standard) and is the phenomenon everyone is losing their
head over! Critically acclaimed across the UK with a soundtrack
storming up the UK popcharts, the sell-out intoxicating musical
tells the story of the six wives of Henry VIII. This official
songbook remixes five hundred years of historical heartbreak into a
celebration of 21st century girl power, with piano/vocal
arrangements of all nine songs from the show. Special content
includes an introduction about the songs, lyric pages and an 8-page
colour section of cast photos.
In the first musicological study of Kurt Weill's complete stage
works, Stephen Hinton charts the full range of theatrical
achievements by one of twentieth-century musical theater's key
figures. Hinton shows how Weill's experiments with a range of
genres - from one-act operas and plays with music to Broadway
musicals and film-opera - became an indispensable part of the
reforms he promoted during his brief but intense career.
Confronting the divisive notion of "two Weills" - one European, the
other American - Hinton adopts a broad and inclusive perspective,
establishing criteria that allow aspects of continuity to emerge,
particularly in matters of dramaturgy. Tracing his extraordinary
journey as a composer, the book shows how Weill's artistic
ambitions led to his working with a remarkably heterogeneous
collection of authors, such as Georg Kaiser, Bertolt Brecht, Moss
Hart, Alan Jay Lerner, and Maxwell Anderson.
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