Those who have lived - not just witnessed - the efflorescence of a pivotal culture moment never see the world through veiled eyes again. Jimmy Lyons was there, devising wholly original inventions of words and music while the Beats, the neo-folk troubadours, the post-bop jazz shooting stars, and the tie-dyed psychedelic rockers were scorching through the underbrush and opening new paths of creativity as alternatives to the increasingly bottom line-driven mainstream. Lyons, though, wasn't content to find a niche in one countercultural movement or another. He kept moving, observing, and writing new poems, stories, and songs. But he never gave up on the wry sophistication of the classic American popular song. Indeed, he has dedicated himself to infusing the same hallowed forms perfected by Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, and others, with his singular fantasias of ingeniously colored and textured wordplay.

These plays have a subtext only Lyons can provide, derived from what he calls the "rituals of the road" and the "the circular rhythms" of the race track, the beats and pulses of everyday American life that rarely raise a ripple on the surface of American culture. Lyons hears the screams and dreams of his countrymen and woman; from them he creates new modes of expression. He has been changed by each of his open-hearted an open-eared encounters, and this body of work is his way of making those changes sing and swing. - Derk Richardson

If you love THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, MAN OF LA MANCHA, and LES MISERABLES, you will enjoy this fascinating analysis of how the three musicals reflect the basic teachings of the Bible. Dr. Jones is a Harvard PhD and a professor emeritus of Spanish language and literature, as well as a novelist, humor columnist, biographer, the author of a widely-adopted textbook, a cartoonist and a graphic artist. She taught "What is Love?" for several years in the adult Sunday School program at her church, and claims she is still trying to get to the bottom of it all. She looks to the ancient Greeks, the 12th-century troubadours, the 19th century Romantics, C.S. Lewis, John Stott, Michael Green, and to the rest of God's extended family to guide her along the way. WHAT READERS ARE SAYING: Sonia Jones is a gifted author and teacher who beautifully presents and contrasts the dramatic love stories of Man of La Mancha, The Phantom of the Opera, and Les Miserables with the greatest love story of all from the Bible. She explores the various meanings of love, and gives deep insight into the hearts of the characters involved and the resulting dramas that unfold. If you love these classic writings and musicals, this study will add to your understanding and appreciation. --Roma Angus, choir director, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Theatre is often said to offer unique insights into the nature of reality, but this obscures the reality of theatre itself. In Real Theatre, Paul Rae takes a joined-up approach to the realities of theatre to explain why performances take the forms they do, and what effects they have. Drawing on examples ranging from Phantom of the Opera and Danny Boyle's Frankenstein, to the performances of the Wooster Group and arthouse director Tsai Ming-liang, he shows how apparently discrete theatrical events emerge from dynamic and often unpredictable social, technical and institutional assemblages. These events then enter a process of cultural circulation that, as Rae explains, takes many forms: fleeting conversations, the mercurial careers of theatrical characters and the composite personae of actors, and high-profile products like the Hollywood movie Birdman. The result is a real theatre that speaks of, and to, the idiosyncratic and cumulative experience of every theatre participant.

Vocal ScoreMusic from Wonderful Town has been out of print for more than 40 years, so we are very proud to present this new edition of the brilliant musical comedy currently running in an acclaimed Broadway revival The music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green tell the story of two sisters who move from Ohio to Greenwich Village. After many hardships of adjustment, they find New York to be a "Wonderful Town." The original run of the show opened in 1953 and starred Rosalind Russell, and the Broadway revival, which opened on November 23, 2003, stars Donna Murphy. The cast recording is being released by DRG Records. Our Vocal Score includes all of the music from the musical.

Herman Finck (1872 - 1939) was a celebrated musical theatre conductor of the early 20th century, with a twenty year term as both musical director and composer at the Palace Theatre in London, followed and overlapped by sessions at the Queen's Theatre and the Drury Lane Theatre. He conducted the London premieres of many romantic musicals including Rose Marie, The Desert Song and Showboat; composed, arranged and orchestrated a great deal of music, particularly for revues (including Round the Map and The Passing Show), wrote around thirty theatre shows including operettas and ballets, and composed many light orchestral pieces and popular songs including 'I'll make a man of you' and 'Gilbert the Filbert'. As conductor he worked with many of the great luminaries of the period, including Anna Pavlova, Vaslav Nijinsky, Vesta Tilley, Harry Lauder, Edith Day and Marie Lloyd. Finck was also a celebrated wit, bon viveur, and clubman, and his autobiography includes many gems of theatrical anecdotage and stories of his famous friends, ranging from Dan Leno to Sir Edward Elgar. It presents a fascinating and wide-ranging picture of life in London musical theatre in the early part of the twentieth century.

The Oxford Handbook of The American Musical offers new and cutting-edge essays on the most important and compelling issues and topics in the growing, interdisciplinary field of musical-theater and film-musical studies. Taking the form of a "keywords" book, it introduces readers to the concepts and terms that define the history of the musical as a genre and that offer ways to reflect on the specific creative choices that shape musicals and their performance on stage and screen. The handbook offers a 9780199973842 of essays written by leading experts in the field, organized within broad conceptual groups, which together capture the breadth, direction, and tone of musicals studies today. Each essay traces the genealogy of the term or issue it addresses, including related issues and controversies, positions and problematizes those issues within larger bodies of scholarship, and provides specific examples drawn from shows and films. Essays both re-examine traditional topics and introduce underexplored areas. Reflecting the concerns of scholars and students alike, the authors emphasize critical and accessible perspectives, and supplement theory with concrete examples that may be accessed through links to the handbook's website. Taking into account issues of composition, performance, and reception, the book's contributors bring a wide range of practical and theoretical perspectives to bear on their considerations of one of America's most lively, enduring artistic traditions. The Oxford Handbook of The American Musical will engage all readers interested in the form, from students to scholars to fans and aficionados, as it analyses the complex relationships among the creators, performers, and audiences who sustain the genre.

In this welcome addition to the immensely popular Yale Broadway Masters series, Larry Starr focuses fresh attention on George Gershwin's Broadway contributions and examines their centrality to the composer's entire career. Starr presents Gershwin as a composer with a unified musical vision-a vision developed on Broadway and used as a source of strength in his well-known concert music. In turn, Gershwin's concert-hall experience enriched and strengthened his musicals, leading eventually to his great "Broadway opera," Porgy and Bess. Through the prism of three major shows-Lady Be Good (1924), Of Thee I Sing (1931), and Porgy and Bess (1935)-Starr highlights Gershwin's distinctive contributions to the evolution of the Broadway musical. In addition, the author considers Gershwin's musical language, his compositions for the concert hall, and his movie scores for Hollywood in the light of his Broadway experience.

Vocal ScoreMusic from Wonderful Town has been out of print for more than 40 years, so we are very proud to present this new edition of the brilliant musical comedy currently running in an acclaimed Broadway revival The music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green tell the story of two sisters who move from Ohio to Greenwich Village. After many hardships of adjustment, they find New York to be a "Wonderful Town." The original run of the show opened in 1953 and starred Rosalind Russell, and the Broadway revival, which opened on November 23, 2003, stars Donna Murphy. The cast recording is being released by DRG Records. Our Vocal Score includes all of the music from the musical.

The space capsule "Lunar Lady" blasts off from Earth on a voyage to the moon with Dr. Braun, Percy and Henry Applegate on board. Upon their arrival on the moon they become aware that there is unrest between the "Nams" of the light side and the "Nooms" of the dark side. It just so happens that one bite from one of Henry's apples causes the both sides to forget their feud and become friends once again.
To celebrate peace on the moon, King Linus throws a "Galaxy Gala" and invites all the
planets to attend. Mercury Mercurial gets the speedy invitations out to "Queen Venus" and her court, the "Kazooties" of Mars, "King Jupiter," the "Saturnettes," the "Uranus Rockers," "King Neptune" and his Mermaids, and "Nicky" and his gang from Pluto.
A grand time is had by all but suddenly Percy reminds everyone that the "Lunar Lady" must return to Earth. Henry asks the Princess Aurora to marry him and return with him now that peace and friendship have been restored on the moon and in the galaxy. There is a happy ending for all, including the little green stow away on the trip back

From the coming of sound to the 1960s, the musical was central to Hollywood production. Exhibiting - often in spectacular fashion - the remarkable resources of the Hollywood studios, musicals came to epitomise the very idea of 'light entertainment'. Films like Top Hat and 42nd Street, Meet Me in St. Louis and On the Town, Singin' in the Rain and Oklahoma!, West Side Story and The Sound of Music were hugely popular, yet were commonly regarded by cultural commentators as trivial and escapist. It was the 1970s before serious study of the Hollywood musical began to change critical attitudes and foster an interest in musical films produced in other cultures. Hollywood musicals have become less common, but the genre persists and both academic interest in and fond nostalgia for the musical shows no signs of abating. 100 Film Musicals provides a stimulating overview of the genre's development, its major themes and the critical debates it has provoked. While centred on the dominant Hollywood tradition, 100 Film Musicals includes films from countries that often tried to emulate the Hollywood style, like Britain and Germany, as well as from very different cultures like India, Egypt and Japan. Jim Hillier and Douglas Pye also discuss post-1960s films from many different sources which adapt and reflect on the conventions of the genre, including recent examples such as Moulin Rouge! and High School Musical, demonstrating that the genre is still very much alive.

(Vocal Selections). Now available Our deluxe songbook features piano/vocal arrangements of 14 songs by Elton John and Tim Rice from this beloved Tony -winning musical: Be Prepared * Can You Feel the Love Tonight * Chow Down * Circle of Life * Endless Night * Hakuna Matata * He Lives in You (Reprise) * I Just Can't Wait to Be King * King of Pride Rock * The Madness of King Scar * The Morning Report * Nants' Ingonyama * Shadowland * They Live in You. Includes a special section of fantastic full-color photos from the Broadway production