Showtime A History of the Broadway Musical Theater

by Stempel, Larry

• ISBN13: 9780393067156
• ISBN10: 0393067157
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-09-06
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• More Book Details

Summary

Showtime brings the history of Broadway musicals to life in a narrative as engaging as the subject itself. Beginning with the scandalous Astor Place Opera House riot of 1849, Larry Stempel traces the growth of musicals from minstrel shows and burlesques, through the golden age of Show Boat and Oklahoma!, to such groundbreaking works as Company and Rent.

Stempel describes the Broadway stage with vivid accounts of the performers drawn to it, and detailed portraits of the creators who wrote the music, lyrics, and stories for its shows, both beloved and less well known. But Stempel travels outside the theater doors as well, to illuminate the wider world of musical theater as a living genre shaped by the forces of American history and culture. He reveals not only how musicals entertain their audiences but also how they serve as barometers of social concerns and bearers of cultural values.

Showtime is the culmination of decades of painstaking research on a genre whose forms have changed over the course of two centuries. In covering the expansive subject before him, Stempel combines original research—including a kaleidoscope of primary sources and archival holdings—with deft and insightful analysis. The result is nothing short of the most comprehensive, authoritative history of the Broadway musical yet published.

''Not just a catalog or reference book, but a highly astute, integrative cultural history.'' -Kirkus Reviews

''Throughout, as Stempel traces the evolution with exhaustive archival research, he offers a penetrating and illuminating analysis of various musical forms and influences. Many of the 105 carefully selected black-and-white illustrations are surprising and revelatory. Theater buffs will be delighted to find that this scholarly, definitive work is also a hugely entertaining read.'' -Publishers Weekly

Table of Contents

Illustrations	p. xi
Preface	p. xv
Introduction: Before The Curtain	p. 1
Out Of The Nineteenth Century
Transition Stages	p. 19
The Astor Place Riot	p. 27
Uncle Tom's Cabin, the Musical	p. 35
The Black Crook	p. 42
Variety Stages	p. 53
From Minstrelsy to Vaudeville	p. 56
Harrigan and Hart	p. 68
Weber and Fields	p. 77
Williams and Walker	p. 85
A Transatlantic Muse	p. 95
Operetta: The Golden Age	p. 98
Light Opera in America	p. 105
American Light Opera	p. 116
Into The Twentieth Century
The Native Wit	p. 131
Cohan and Times Square	p. 137
Berlin and Tin Pan Alley	p. 144
Bolton-Wodehouse-Kern: The Princess Theater	p. 159
The Cult Of Romance	p. 169
Operetta: The Silver Age	p. 174
Romberg and Friml	p. 180
Show Boat	p. 192
A Shadow Of Vulgarity	p. 203
Revues: Spectacular and Intimate	p. 208
Musical Comedy/Musical Farce Comedy	p. 222
Jazz-Age "Jazz"	p. 228
Broadway Songbook	p. 241
The Gershwins	p. 250
Cole Porter	p. 263
Rodgers and Hart	p. 275
The Script Angle	p. 289
A Musical Play	p. 293
Oklahomal: The Musical Play	p. 300
Literate Musical Comedy	p. 312
Musical Theater: The New Art	p. 329
Rodgers and Hammerstein	p. 334
Lerner and Loewe	p. 348
Harnick and Bock	p. 357
Opera, In Our Own Way	p. 367
Opera on Broadway	p. 374
Broadway Opera	p. 385
West Side Story	p. 397
The Great American Showshop	p. 409
The Abbott Touch	p. 419
Harburg's Circle	p. 425
A Loesser Orbit	p. 433
Comden and Green-and Styne	p. 445
Toward The New Millennium
Away From Broadway	p. 459
Early Alternative Musicals	p. 465
The Off Broadway Renaissance	p. 480
Farther "Off" and Coming Back	p. 497
The Metaphor Angle	p. 515
Cabaret and the Concept Musical	p. 522
Prince, Sondheim & Co.	p. 531
Sondheim After Prince	p. 543
A Dancing Place	p. 557
The Ballet-Directors: De Mille and Robbins	p. 564
The Hoofer-Directors: Champion and Fosse	p. 573
A Chorus Line and After	p. 585
Distancing Effects	p. 601
Rice, Lloyd Webber, and Rock Opera	p. 607
Mackintosh and the Megamusical	p. 617
Disney and the Movical	p. 629
Another Broadway... Another Show...	p. 643
Revivals	p. 645
Antimusicals	p. 656
Sondheim's Children	p. 668
Notes	p. 687
Works Cited	p. 745
Selected Historical Discography	p. 783
Credits	p. 787
Index	p. 795
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