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Good Nights Out - A History of Popular British Theatre Since the Second World War (Paperback)
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Good Nights Out - A History of Popular British Theatre Since the Second World War (Paperback)
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London's West End is a global success story, staging phenomenal hit
shows that have delighted millions of spectators and generated
billions of pounds in revenue. In Good Nights Out, Aleks Sierz
provides a thematic survey of such popular theatre shows that were
enormous commercial successes over the past 75 years. He argues
that these outstanding hits have a lot to say about the collective
cultural, social and political attitudes and aspirations of the
country, and about how our national identity - and theatre's role
in creating it - has evolved over the decades. The book spans a
range of work from almost forgotten plays, such as R. F.
Delderfield's Worm's Eye View and Hugh Hastings's Seagulls Over
Sorrento, to well-known mega-hits, such as The Mousetrap and The
Phantom of the Opera. Such popular work has tended to be
undervalued by some critics and commentators mainly because it has
not been thought to be a suitable subject for inclusion in the
canon of English Literature. By contrast, Sierz demonstrates that
genres such as the British musical, light comedy, sex farce or
murder mystery are worth appreciating not only for their intrinsic
theatrical qualities, but also as examples of the dream life of the
British people. The book challenges the idea that mega-hits are
merely escapist entertainments and instead shows how they
contribute to the creation of powerful myths about our national
life. The analysis of such shows also points towards the
possibility of creating an alternative history of postwar British
theatre.
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