1st Edition

Musical Comedy in America From The Black Crook to South Pacific, From The King & I to Sweeney Todd

By Cecil A. Smith, Glenn Litton Copyright 1987
    400 Pages
    by Routledge

    400 Pages
    by Routledge

    First Published in 1987. This is the second edition with an additional foreword. The purpose of this book—the first to recount the history of the popular musical stage on Broadway and its intersecting streets—is to tell what the various entertainments were like, how they looked and sounded, who was in them, and why they made people laugh or cry. The values employed in the book are changeable and inconsistent. Sometimes an affable smile is bestowed upon a musical comedy, burlesque, or revue that was really very bad. Sometimes a harsh verdict is brought in against an entertainment that received widespread approval and praise.

    FOREWORD TO THE FIRST EDITION, FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION, PART ONE: 1864-1907 I Before The Black Crook II The Black Crook IV The Bleached Blondes V Evangeline and Edward E. Rice VI The Kiralfys VII Farce-Comedy VIII Comic Opera: The First Decade IX Comic Opera: The Second Decade PART TWO: 1908 -25 X The Gaiety Girls, The Passing Show, and Weber and Fields XI The Turn of the Century XII The Merry Widow and the Ziegfield Follies XIII Before and During the First World War XIV A New Era XV New Art and Old Formulas XVI The Postwar Revue XVII Musical Comedy from 1919 to 1925 PART THREE: 1925 -50 XVIII The Revue Becomes Civilized XIX Musical Comedy Discovers Contemporary Life XX The Depression Decade XXI The New Audience XXII War and Postwar Years XXIII The Past, The Present, and The Future PART FOUR: THE 1950s XXIV The Book Musical Refined PART FIVE: THE 1960s XXV Trouble 252 PART SIX: THE 1970s XXVI An Uncertain Comeback

    Biography

    From The Black Crook to South Pacific by CECIL SMITH From The King and I to Sweeney Todd by GLENN LITTON.