A Critical Companion to the American Stage Musical

It traces the history and development of the industry and art form in America with a particular focus on its artistic and commercial development in New York City from the early 20th century to the present

Emphasis is placed on commercial, artistic and cultural events that influenced the Broadway musical for an ever-renewing, increasingly broad and diverse audience: the Gilded Age, the Great Depression, the World War II era, the British invasion in the 1980s and the media age at the turn of the twenty-first century

Supplementary essays by leading scholars provide detailed focus on the American musical's production and preservation, as well as its influence on daily life on the local, national, and international levels

For students, these essays provide models of varying approaches and interpretation, equipping them with the skills and understanding to develop their own analysis of key productions

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Birth of (the Popular Culture of) a Nation: Stage Entertainment in a New Land

Chapter 2 The Civil War Era to the Gilded Age

Chapter 3 The Early 20th Century

Chapter 4 The Great Depression to World War II

Chapter 5 World War II to 1960

Chapter 6 We've Surely Got Trouble: The 1960s and 1970s

Chapter 7 The Megamusical to Hamilton

Chapter 8 Other Angles: Different Approaches to the American Stage Musical

Putting It Together: A Step-By-Step Look At Musicals from the Page to the Stage ~ Robert Meffe (San Diego State University, USA)

Making Musicals for Serious Pleasure ~ Stacy Wolf (Princeton Univesity, USA)

Off Off Off Off Broadway: Musicals and the Regional Theater ~ Laura MacDonald (University of Portsmouth, UK)

Today, Broadway; Tomorrow, the World: The "American" Musical and Globalization ~ Jessica Sternfeld (Chapman University, USA)

Ways of Knowing: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Studying the Stage Musical ~ Elizabeth Titrington Craft (Harvard University, USA) & Joanna Dee Das (Williams College, USA)

Notes

Bibliography

Notes on Contributors

Index

Editor Elizabeth L. Wollman is Associate Professor of Music at Baruch College, City University of New York