Download or read book American Musical Revue written by Gerald Martin Bordman and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1985 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revues--Broadway musicals where plot was unimportant or nonexistent and the emphasis was on comedy skits, specialty numbers, catchy songs, and chorus lines of beautiful girls--flourished for half a century, from the 1890s to about 1950. This affectionate history chronicles the development of the form, and recaptures the delights, now largely gone, that revues offered. "Will be enjoyable to both scholar and theater afficionado alike."--Library Journal Deals with a series of Broadway musicals where plot was unimportant or nonexistent and the emphasis was on comedy skits, specialty vocal and dance numbers, catchy songs, and often chorus lines of beautiful girls.
Download or read book The Secret Life of the American Musical written by Jack Viertel and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2016-03-01 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Bestseller For almost a century, Americans have been losing their hearts and losing their minds in an insatiable love affair with the American musical. It often begins in childhood in a darkened theater, grows into something more serious for high school actors, and reaches its passionate zenith when it comes time for love, marriage, and children, who will start the cycle all over again. Americans love musicals. Americans invented musicals. Americans perfected musicals. But what, exactly, is a musical? In The Secret Life of the American Musical, Jack Viertel takes them apart, puts them back together, sings their praises, marvels at their unflagging inventiveness, and occasionally despairs over their more embarrassing shortcomings. In the process, he invites us to fall in love all over again by showing us how musicals happen, what makes them work, how they captivate audiences, and how one landmark show leads to the next—by design or by accident, by emulation or by rebellion—from Oklahoma! to Hamilton and onward. Structured like a musical, The Secret Life of the American Musical begins with an overture and concludes with a curtain call, with stops in between for “I Want” songs, “conditional” love songs, production numbers, star turns, and finales. The ultimate insider, Viertel has spent three decades on Broadway, working on dozens of shows old and new as a conceiver, producer, dramaturg, and general creative force; he has his own unique way of looking at the process and at the people who collaborate to make musicals a reality. He shows us patterns in the architecture of classic shows and charts the inevitable evolution that has taken place in musical theater as America itself has evolved socially and politically. The Secret Life of the American Musical makes you feel as though you’ve been there in the rehearsal room, in the front row of the theater, and in the working offices of theater owners and producers as they pursue their own love affair with that rare and elusive beast—the Broadway hit.
Download or read book The American Musical Theater written by Lehman Engel and published by New York : Macmillan. This book was released on 1975 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Musical written by Richard Kislan and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 1995 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Applause Books). This revised and expanded edition of Kislan's acclaimed study of America's musical theater includes a new section on "Recent Musical Theater: Issues and Problems." "The ancient union of drama and song, known as musical theater, comes in many forms vaudeville, burlesque, comic opera, minstrels, etc. The author reviews these and other highlights of American musicals ... with a fascinating background on the elements that contribute to the success of a Showboat ." King Features * "Worth study by anyone who still thinks that the musical is a collection of songs." The Stage
Download or read book American Musical Theater written by Gerald Bordman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2001-03 with total page 936 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gerald Bordman's American Musical Theatre has become a landmark book since its original publication in 1978. In this third edition, he offers authoritative summaries on the general artistic trends and developments for each season on musical comedy, operetta, revues, and the one-man and one-woman shows from the first musical to the 1999/2000 season. With detailed show, song, and people indexes, Bordman provides a running commentary and assessment as well as providing the basic facts about each production.
Download or read book Stage It with Music written by Thomas S. Hischak and published by Greenwood. This book was released on 1993-06-30 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "...The book succeeds due to its comprehensiveness and useful cross-referencing....There is a wealth of information here." Library Journal
Download or read book American Musical Theatre written by Gerald Martin Bordman and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 1033 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hailed as "absolutely the best reference book on its subject" by Newsweek, American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle covers more than 250 years of musical theatre in the United States, from a 1735 South Carolina production of Flora, or Hob in the Well to The Addams Family in 2010. Authors Gerald Bordman and Richard Norton write an engaging narrative blending history, critical analysis, and lively description to illustrate the transformation of American musical theatre through such incarnations as the ballad opera, revue, Golden Age musical, rock musical, Disney musical, and, with 2010's American Idiot, even the punk musical. The Chronicle is arranged chronologically and is fully indexed according to names of shows, songs, and people involved, for easy searching and browsing. Chapters range from the "Prologue," which traces the origins of American musical theater to 1866, through several "intermissions" (for instance, "Broadway's Response to the Swing Era, 1937-1942") and up to "Act Seven," the theatre of the twenty-first century. This last chapter covers the dramatic changes in musical theatre since the last edition published-whereas Fosse, a choreography-heavy revue, won the 1999 Tony for Best Musical, the 2008 award went to In the Heights, which combines hip-hop, rap, meringue and salsa unlike any musical before it. Other groundbreaking and/or box-office-breaking shows covered for the first time include Avenue Q, The Producers, Billy Elliot, Jersey Boys, Monty Python's Spamalot, Wicked, Hairspray, Urinetown the Musical, and Spring Awakening. Discussion of these shows incorporates plot synopses, names of principal players, descriptions of scenery and costumes, and critical reactions. In addition, short biographies interspersed throughout the text colorfully depict the creative minds that shaped the most influential musicals. Collectively, these elements create the most comprehensive, authoritative history of musical theatre in this country and make this an essential resource for students, scholars, performers, dramaturges, and musical enthusiasts.
Download or read book The American Musical written by Tom Vallance and published by London : A. Zwemmer ; New York : A. S. Barnes. This book was released on 1970 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book American Musical Theatre written by Steven Porter and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-10-14 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 1987. Split into four parts, this book seeks to inform the reader, teachers, directors and students about American Musical Theatre. Part I is a brief history of the American Musical Theatre, for it is only in the context of history that the material on which you work can be fully judged and mastered. Part II is a brief discussion of the elements of production. Knowing what ought to take place in a well-planned show can go a long way toward counteracting what does not take place in a poorly planned one. Part III is a brief discussion of how to evaluate the elements of craftmanship one expects to find in the writing and performing of a musical. The knowledge here is indispensable to the performer. It is the feel of the plane to the pilot, the touch of the key to the pianist. It is, in fact, the very life blood of the art form. Finally, Part IV provides an opportunity to put into practice what previous study has taught.
Download or read book The American Musical written by William Michael Maher and published by . This book was released on 1974 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book American Musical Comedy written by Gerald Martin Bordman and published by New York : Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1982 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A companion volume to American Operetta, this book traces the historical development of that quintessential American art form, the musical comedy. Full of fascinating details and telling insights, it also includes the long-lost text of the 1884 hit Adonis, the first musical comedy to run over 500 performances on Broadway.
Download or read book American Musical Revue written by Gerald Martin Bordman and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1985 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revues--Broadway musicals where plot was unimportant or nonexistent and the emphasis was on comedy skits, specialty numbers, catchy songs, and chorus lines of beautiful girls--flourished for half a century, from the 1890s to about 1950. This affectionate history chronicles the development of the form, and recaptures the delights, now largely gone, that revues offered. "Will be enjoyable to both scholar and theater afficionado alike."--Library Journal Deals with a series of Broadway musicals where plot was unimportant or nonexistent and the emphasis was on comedy skits, specialty vocal and dance numbers, catchy songs, and often chorus lines of beautiful girls.
Download or read book The American Musical written by Peter Riddle and published by Oakville, Ont. : Mosaic Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the origins of music theatre from its 18th century European roots through its transformation in 19th century America, and its relation to American popular forms of entertainment as the minstrel show, burlesque and the revue. The flowering of the true musical comedy is documented, as represented by the Princess Musical of Jerome Kern and P G Wodehouse, which then gave birth to the first enduring masterpieces of American music drama -- Kern and Hammerstein's 'Show Boat'. Includes section on Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber and the development of music theatre through the sixties and beyond.
Download or read book Better Foot Forward written by Ethan Mordden and published by Penguin Adult Hc/Tr. This book was released on 1976 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History of the American musical from the 1920's to the 1970's.
Download or read book Irving Berlin s American Musical Theater written by Jeffrey Magee and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Irving Berlin's songs have been the soundtrack of America for a century, but his most profound contribution to the nation is to Broadway. Award-winning music historian Jeffrey Magee's chronicle of Berlin's theatrical career is the first book to fully consider the songwriter's immeasurable influence on the Great White Way. Tracing Berlin's humble beginnings on the lower-east side to his rise to American icon, Irving Berlin's American Musical Theatre will delight theater aficionados as well as students of music, and popular culture, and anyone interested in the story of a man whose life and work expressed so well the American dream.
Download or read book Broadway Babies written by Ethan Mordden and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1988-06-23 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vividly recreating the unique pleasure of experiencing a song-and-dance show, Broadway Babies spotlights the men and women who made a difference in the development of American musical comedy. Mordden's account features such show people as Florenz Ziegfeld, Harold Prince, Bert Lahr, Gwen Verdon, Angela Lansbury, Victor Herbert, Liza Minnelli, and Stephen Sondheim, and such musicals as Sally, Oh Kay!, Anything Goes, Show Boat, Oklahoma!, Follies, Chicago, and countless others. While theatrical historians traditionally have emphasized the role of the authors of musicals, Mordden also examines the personal styles of the directors, choreographers, and producers, in order to demonstrate not only what the musical became but what it was. The volume includes an extensive discography--the first of its kind--which offers a virtually self-contained history of recorded show music.
Download or read book Anything Goes written by Ethan Mordden and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-08-08 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ethan Mordden has been hailed as "a sharp-eared listener and a discerning critic," by Opera News, which compares his books to "dinner with a knowledgeable, garrulous companion." The "preeminent historian of the American musical" (New York Times), he "brings boundless energy and enthusiasm buttressed by an arsenal of smart anecdotes" (Wall Street Journal). Now Mordden offers an entirely fresh and infectiously delightful history of American musical theatre. Anything Goes stages a grand revue of the musical from the 1700s through to the present day, narrated in Mordden's famously witty, scholarly, and conversational style. He places us in a bare rehearsal room as the cast of Oklahoma! changes history by psychoanalyzing the plot in the greatest of the musical's many Dream Ballets. And he gives us tickets for orchestra seats on opening night-raising the curtain on the pleasures of Victor Herbert's The Red Mill and the thrill of Porgy and Bess. Mordden examines the music, of course, but also more neglected elements. Dance was once considered as crucial as song; he follows it from the nineteenth century's zany hoofing to tap "combinations" of the 1920s, from the injection of ballet and modern dance in the 1930s and '40s to the innovations of Bob Fosse. He also explores the changing structure of musical comedy and operetta, and the evolution of the role of the star. Fred Stone, the avuncular Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, seldom varied his acting from part to part; but the versatile Ethel Merman turned the headlining role inside out in Gypsy, playing a character who was selfish, fierce, and destructive. From "ballad opera" to burlesque, from Fiddler on the Roof to Rent, the history and lore of the musical unfolds here in a performance worthy of a standing ovation.
