Description
Book Synopsis
Most books on the American musical are little more than exercises in nostalgia. The specially commissioned essays that make up Approaches to the American Musical take a different view of the form, going beyond the common assertion that musicals are simply escapist.
Trade Review
Table of Contents
Copyright Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
1. Introduction. Cultural Musicology and the American Musical, Robert Lawson-Peebles
2. From Butterfly to Saigon - Europe, America and "Success", Wilfrid Mellers
3. There's No Business like Show Business - a Speculative Reading of the Broadway Musical, Carey Wall
4. From Gold Diggers to Bar Girls - a Selective History of the American Movie Musical, Ralph Willett
5. Holy Yumpin' Yiminy Scandinavian Immigrant Stereotypes in Early 20th Century American Musical, Anne-Charlotte Hanes Harvey
6. Movies in Disguise - Negotiating Censorship and Patriarchy Through the Dances of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Sue Rickard
7. Brush Up Your Shakespeare, Robert Lawson-Peebles
8. Who Loves You Porgy? The Debates Surrounding Gershwin's Musical, David Horn
9. "West Side Story" Revisited, Wilfrid Mellers
10. Sondheim and the Art that has No Name, Stephen Banfield
Index
