The Secret Life Of The American Musical

Author : Jack Viertel
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
ISBN 13 : 0374711259
Total Pages : 335 pages
Book Rating : 4.52/5 ( download)

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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.

Author : Jack Viertel
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 0374256926
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.20/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Secret Life of the American Musical written by Jack Viertel and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-03 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Putting it together, bit by bit: an insider’s look at the anatomy of the Broadway musical

Author : Steven M. Friedman
Publisher : iUniverse
ISBN 13 : 1663224803
Total Pages : 267 pages
Book Rating : 4.04/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Ultimate Broadway Musical List Book written by Steven M. Friedman and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2021-07-15 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Showboat to Hamilton, American musical theater has long held the imagination and enjoyment of the nations’ theater goers. It creates an emotional reaction as there are favorites we cherish, the all-time bests, those that are the most reviled, the over-rated and the unforgettable. This second edition of The Ultimate Broadway Musical List Book considers the history of the Broadway Musical from the unique perspective of the list-the bests and worst of various eras, the groundbreaking, and the forgotten gems. Steven M. Friedman explores the musicals of the last 100 years, taking apart the favorites and flops alike in numerous creative ways. These lists and their explanations offer facts and background that stimulate laughs and discussion, provoke passionate reaction, and provide tons of fun for the Broadway Musical enthusiast. Enjoy a new twist on the subject, as this collection explores Broadway musicals and their history and provides intriguing background for music theater aficionados of all levels.

Author : Ken Mandelbaum
Publisher : St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN 13 : 1466843276
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.71/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Not Since Carrie written by Ken Mandelbaum and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 1992-08-15 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not Since Carrie is Ken Mandelbaum's brilliant survey of Broadway's biggest flops. This highly readable and entertaining book highlights almost 200 musicals created between 1950 and 1990, framed around the notorious musical adaptation of Carrie, and examines the reasons for their failure. "Essential and hilarious," raves The New Yorker, and The New York Times calls the book "A must-read."

Author : Raymond Knapp
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691186200
Total Pages : 361 pages
Book Rating : 4.07/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity written by Raymond Knapp and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American musical has achieved and maintained relevance to more people in America than any other performance-based art. This thoughtful history of the genre, intended for readers of all stripes, offers probing discussions of how American musicals, especially through their musical numbers, advance themes related to American national identity. Written by a musicologist and supported by a wealth of illustrative audio examples (on the book's website), the book examines key historical antecedents to the musical, including the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, nineteenth and early twentieth-century American burlesque and vaudeville, Tin Pan Alley, and other song types. It then proceeds thematically, focusing primarily on fifteen mainstream shows from the twentieth century, with discussions of such notable productions as Show Boat (1927), Porgy and Bess (1935), Oklahoma! (1943), West Side Story (1957), Hair (1967), Pacific Overtures (1976), and Assassins (1991). The shows are grouped according to their treatment of themes that include defining America, mythologies, counter-mythologies, race and ethnicity, dealing with World War II, and exoticism. Each chapter concludes with a brief consideration of available scholarship on related subjects; an extensive appendix provides information on each show discussed, including plot summaries and song lists, and a listing of important films, videos, audio recordings, published scores, and libretti associated with each musical.

Author : Raymond Knapp
Publisher : OUP USA
ISBN 13 : 0195385942
Total Pages : 482 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of The American Musical written by Raymond Knapp and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2011-11-04 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 cross-section 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.

Author : Hodgson B.F.
Publisher : Рипол Классик
ISBN 13 : 5521055061
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.67/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Secret Garden written by Hodgson B.F. and published by Рипол Классик. This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: «Таинственный сад» – любимая классика для читателей всех возрастов, жемчужина творчества Фрэнсис Ходжсон Бернетт, роман о заново открытой радости жизни и магии силы. Мэри Леннокс, жестокое и испорченное дитя высшего света, потеряв родителей в Индии, возвращается в Англию, на воспитание к дяде-затворнику в его поместье. Однако дядя находится в постоянных отъездах, и Мэри начинает исследовать округу, в ходе чего делает много открытий, в том числе находит удивительный маленький сад, огороженный стеной, вход в который почему-то запрещен. Отыскав ключ и потайную дверцу, девочка попадает внутрь. Но чьи тайны хранит этот загадочный садик? И нужно ли знать то, что находится под запретом?.. Впрочем, это не единственный секрет в поместье...

Author : John Bush Jones
Publisher : Brandeis University Press
ISBN 13 : 1611682231
Total Pages : 420 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Our Musicals, Ourselves written by John Bush Jones and published by Brandeis University Press. This book was released on 2011-04-17 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 newspapersÕ front pages across our nation. He reviews the productions, lyrics, staging, and casts from the lesser-known early musicals (the ÒgunboatÓ musicals of the Teddy Roosevelt era and the ÒCinderella showsÓ and Òleisure time musicalsÓ 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, JonesÕs 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, JonesÕs comprehensive social history will appeal to both students and fans of Broadway.

Author : John Kenrick
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1474267025
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Musical Theatre written by John Kenrick and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-07-27 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Musical Theatre: A History is a new revised edition of a proven core text for college and secondary school students – and an insightful and accessible celebration of twenty-five centuries of great theatrical entertainment. As an educator with extensive experience in professional theatre production, author John Kenrick approaches the subject with a unique appreciation of musicals as both an art form and a business. Using anecdotes, biographical profiles, clear definitions, sample scenes and select illustrations, Kenrick focuses on landmark musicals, and on the extraordinary talents and business innovators who have helped musical theatre evolve from its roots in the dramas of ancient Athens all the way to the latest hits on Broadway and London's West End. Key improvements to the second edition: · A new foreword by Oscar Hammerstein III, a critically acclaimed historian and member of a family with deep ties to the musical theatre, is included · The 28 chapters are reformatted for the typical 14 week, 28 session academic course, as well as for a two semester, once-weekly format, making it easy for educators to plan a syllabus and reading assignments. · To make the book more interactive, each chapter includes suggested listening and reading lists, designed to help readers step beyond the printed page to experience great musicals and performers for themselves. A comprehensive guide to musical theatre as an international phenomenon, Musical Theatre: A History is an ideal textbook for university and secondary school students.

Author : David Spencer
Publisher : Heinemann Drama
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Musical Theatre Writer's Survival Guide written by David Spencer and published by Heinemann Drama. This book was released on 2005 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Award-winning musical dramatist and teacher David Spencer provides a guide-to-the-game that helps you negotiate aspects of the musical theatre business and more.