Ethan Mordden

Anything Goes (eBook, ePUB)

A History of American Musical Theatre

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

Ethan Mordden has been hailed as "a sharp-eared listener and a discerning critic," by Opera News, which compares his books to "dinner with a knowledgeable, garrulous companion." The "preeminent historian of the American musical" (New York Times), he "brings boundless energy and enthusiasm buttressed by an arsenal of smart anecdotes" (Wall Street Journal). Now Mordden offers an entirely fresh and infectiously delightful history of American musical theatre. Anything Goes stages a grand revue of the musical from the 1700s through to the present day, narrated in Mordden's famously witty, scholarly, and conversational style. He places us in a bare rehearsal room as the cast of Oklahoma! changes history by psychoanalyzing the plot in the greatest of the musical's many Dream Ballets. And he gives us tickets for orchestra seats on opening night-raising the curtain on the pleasures of Victor Herbert's The Red Mill and the thrill of Porgy and Bess. Mordden examines the music, of course, but also more neglected elements. Dance was once considered as crucial as song; he follows it from the nineteenth century's zany hoofing to tap "combinations" of the 1920s, from the injection of ballet and modern dance in the 1930s and '40s to the innovations of Bob Fosse. He also explores the changing structure of musical comedy and operetta, and the evolution of the role of the star. Fred Stone, the avuncular Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, seldom varied his acting from part to part; but the versatile Ethel Merman turned the headlining role inside out in Gypsy, playing a character who was selfish, fierce, and destructive. From "ballad opera" to burlesque, from Fiddler on the Roof to Rent, the history and lore of the musical unfolds here in a performance worthy of a standing ovation.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Oxford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 400
• Erscheinungstermin: 8. August 2013
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780199313570
• Artikelnr.: 39179259

Autorenporträt

Ethan Mordden is a recognized authority on the American musical, and the author of such books as Make Believe: The Broadway Musical in the 1920s, Beautiful Mornin: The Broadway Musical in the 1940s, and Coming Up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s. He lives in Manhattan.

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction
THE FIRST AGE
1. Source Material
2. The Age of Burlesque
3. At the Turn of the Century
THE SECOND AGE
4. The Witch of the Wood and the Bamboo Tree
5. Victor Herbert
6. The New Music
7. The Variety Show
THE THIRD AGE
8. The Structure of the Twenties Musical Comedy
9. The Structure of the Twenties Operetta
10. Dancing in the Dark
11. Blue Monday Blues
12. The Rodgers and Hammerstein Handbook
13. Something to Dance About
14. After West Side Story
15. The Sondheim Handbook
THE FOURTH AGE
16. Devolutions
17. That Is the Stae of the Art
FOR FURTHER READING
DISCOGRAPHY
INDEX