The Oxford Companion to the American Musical

The Oxford Companion to the American Musical PDF Author: Thomas S. Hischak
Publisher:
ISBN: 0195335333
Category : Musicals
Languages : en
Pages : 958

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Book Description
A dictionary of short entries on American musicals and their practitioners, including performers, composers, lyricists, producers, and choreographers

The Oxford Companion to the American Musical

The Oxford Companion to the American Musical PDF Author: Thomas S. Hischak
Publisher:
ISBN: 0195335333
Category : Musicals
Languages : en
Pages : 958

Get Book Here

Book Description
A dictionary of short entries on American musicals and their practitioners, including performers, composers, lyricists, producers, and choreographers

The Oxford Handbook of The American Musical

The Oxford Handbook of The American Musical PDF Author: Raymond Knapp
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199874727
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of The American Musical offers new and cutting-edge essays on the most important and compelling issues and topics in the growing, interdisciplinary field of musical-theater and film-musical studies. Taking the form of a "keywords" book, it introduces readers to the concepts and terms that define the history of the musical as a genre and that offer ways to reflect on the specific creative choices that shape musicals and their performance on stage and screen. The handbook offers a cross-section of essays written by leading experts in the field, organized within broad conceptual groups, which together capture the breadth, direction, and tone of musicals studies today. Each essay traces the genealogy of the term or issue it addresses, including related issues and controversies, positions and problematizes those issues within larger bodies of scholarship, and provides specific examples drawn from shows and films. Essays both re-examine traditional topics and introduce underexplored areas. Reflecting the concerns of scholars and students alike, the authors emphasize critical and accessible perspectives, and supplement theory with concrete examples that may be accessed through links to the handbook's website. Taking into account issues of composition, performance, and reception, the book's contributors bring a wide range of practical and theoretical perspectives to bear on their considerations of one of America's most lively, enduring artistic traditions. The Oxford Handbook of The American Musical will engage all readers interested in the form, from students to scholars to fans and aficionados, as it analyses the complex relationships among the creators, performers, and audiences who sustain the genre.

American Musical Theatre

American Musical Theatre PDF Author: Gerald Martin Bordman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 840

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Book Description
Gerald Bordman's American Musical Theatre has become a landmark book since its publication in 1978. It chronicles American musicals, show by show and season by season, and offers a running commentary and assessment as well as providing the basic facts about each production. This updated edition includes the new shows that have opened on Broadway since the original publication. Also included are over a hundred musicals that were turn-of-the-century, cheap-priced touring shows which never played Broadway, but were the training ground for many theatre greats.

Boy Loses Girl

Boy Loses Girl PDF Author: Thomas S. Hischak
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 9780810844407
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
A lively and informative look at the careers, works, and characteristics of the major librettists of the American theatre. Included are dozens of men and women who wrote the "books" for Broadway musicals over the past one hundred years, from George M. Cohan to the present day. Boy Loses Girl presents a whole new perspective for looking at the American musical theater. For film students, scholars and enthusiasts of the American musical theatre.

The Oxford Companion to American Theatre

The Oxford Companion to American Theatre PDF Author: Gerald Bordman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199771154
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 694

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Book Description
First published in 1984, Gerald Bordman's Oxford Companion to American Theatre is the standard one-volume source on our national theatre. Critics have hailed its "wealth of authoritative information" (Back Stage), its "fascinating picture of the volatile American stage" (The Guardian), and its "well-chosen, illuminating facts" (Newsday). Now thoroughly revised, this distinguished volume once again provides an up-to-date guide to the American stage from its beginnings to the present. Completely updated by theater professor Thomas Hischak, the volume includes playwrights, plays, actors, directors, producers, songwriters, famous playhouses, dramatic movements, and much more. The book covers not only classic works (such as Death of a Salesman) but also many commercially successful plays (such as Getting Gertie's Garter), plus entries on foreign figures that have influenced our dramatic development (from Shakespeare to Beckett and Pinter). New entries include recent plays such as Angels in America and Six Degrees of Separation, performers such as Eric Bogosian and Bill Irwin, playwrights like David Henry Hwang and Wendy Wasserstein, and relevant developments and issues including AIDS in American theatre, theatrical producing by Disney, and the rise in solo performance. Accessible and authoritative, this valuable A-Z reference is ideal not only for students and scholars of theater, but everyone with a passion for the stage.

Through the Screen Door

Through the Screen Door PDF Author: Thomas S. Hischak
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 9780810850187
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
This book is about the transition that musicals went through when they traveled from the stage to the screen. While the approach is critical, the style is readable and yields fascinating knowledge on the many things that did and didn't happen as theatre and film have merged throughout the past century.Hischak'sanalysis covers productions from The Desert Song (1927), to Chicago (2002).

Off-Broadway Musicals Since 1919

Off-Broadway Musicals Since 1919 PDF Author: Thomas S. Hischak
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780810877719
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Although Off Broadway has long been the birthplace of innovative and popular musicals, there have been few studies of these influential works. Long-running champs, such as The Fantasticks and Little Shop of Horrors, are included in many books about American musicals, but what of the hundreds of other Off-Broadway musicals? In Off-Broadway Musicals since 1919, Thomas S. Hischak looks at more than 375 productions, describing and analyzing them, with particular attention to books, scores, performers, and creators. Presented chronologically and divided into chapters by decade, the book begins with the landmark musical Greenwich Village Follies (1919) and culminates with the satiric The Toxic Avenger (2009). This volume covers any works of consequence, especially if they were popular or influential, but dozens of more obscure musicals are also included to illustrate the depth and breadth of Off Broadway. Works that introduced an important artistic talent, from performers to songwriters, are considered, and the selection represents the various trends and themes that made Off Broadway significant. In addition to essential data about each musical, the plot and score are described, the success (or lack of) is chronicled, and Hischak discusses the work's merits and influences on musical theatre in general. This highly readable volume will please scholars as well as patrons and fans of musical theatre. Book jacket.

The Encyclopedia of Film Composers

The Encyclopedia of Film Composers PDF Author: Thomas S. Hischak
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442245506
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 837

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Book Description
For more than a century, original music has been composed for the cinema. From the early days when live music accompanied silent films to the present in which a composer can draw upon a full orchestra or a lone synthesizer to embody a composition, music has been an integral element of most films. By the late 1930s, movie studios had established music departments, and some of the greatest names in film music emerged during Hollywood’s Golden Age, including Alfred Newman, Max Steiner, Dimitri Tiomkin, and Bernard Herrmann. Over the decades, other creators of screen music offered additional memorable scores, and some composers—such as Henry Mancini, Randy Newman, and John Williams—have become household names. The Encyclopedia of Film Composers features entries on more than 250 movie composers from around the world. It not only provides facts about these artists but also explains what makes each composer notable and discusses his or her music in detail. Each entry includes Biographical material Important dates Career highlights Analysis of the composer’s musical style Complete list of movie credits This book brings recognition to the many men and women who have written music for movies over the past one hundred years. In addition to composers from the United States and Great Britain, artists from dozens of other countries are also represented. A rich resource of movie music history, The Encyclopedia of Film Composers will be of interest to fans of cinema in general as well as those who want to learn more about the many talented individuals who have created memorable scores.

American Musical Theatre

American Musical Theatre PDF Author: Gerald Martin Bordman
Publisher:
ISBN: 0199729700
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 1033

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Book Description
Hailed as "absolutely the best reference book on its subject" by Newsweek, American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle covers more than 250 years of musical theatre in the United States, from a 1735 South Carolina production of Flora, or Hob in the Well to The Addams Family in 2010. Authors Gerald Bordman and Richard Norton write an engaging narrative blending history, critical analysis, and lively description to illustrate the transformation of American musical theatre through such incarnations as the ballad opera, revue, Golden Age musical, rock musical, Disney musical, and, with 2010's American Idiot, even the punk musical. The Chronicle is arranged chronologically and is fully indexed according to names of shows, songs, and people involved, for easy searching and browsing. Chapters range from the "Prologue," which traces the origins of American musical theater to 1866, through several "intermissions" (for instance, "Broadway's Response to the Swing Era, 1937-1942") and up to "Act Seven," the theatre of the twenty-first century. This last chapter covers the dramatic changes in musical theatre since the last edition published-whereas Fosse, a choreography-heavy revue, won the 1999 Tony for Best Musical, the 2008 award went to In the Heights, which combines hip-hop, rap, meringue and salsa unlike any musical before it. Other groundbreaking and/or box-office-breaking shows covered for the first time include Avenue Q, The Producers, Billy Elliot, Jersey Boys, Monty Python's Spamalot, Wicked, Hairspray, Urinetown the Musical, and Spring Awakening. Discussion of these shows incorporates plot synopses, names of principal players, descriptions of scenery and costumes, and critical reactions. In addition, short biographies interspersed throughout the text colorfully depict the creative minds that shaped the most influential musicals. Collectively, these elements create the most comprehensive, authoritative history of musical theatre in this country and make this an essential resource for students, scholars, performers, dramaturges, and musical enthusiasts.

Irving Berlin's American Musical Theater

Irving Berlin's American Musical Theater PDF Author: Jeffrey Magee
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199911630
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
From patriotic "God Bless America" to wistful "White Christmas," Irving Berlin's songs have long accompanied Americans as they fall in love, go to war, and come home for the holidays. Irving Berlin's American Musical Theater is the first book to fully consider this songwriter's immeasurable influence on the American stage. Award-winning music historian Jeffrey Magee chronicles Berlin's legendary theatrical career, providing a rich background to some of the great composer's most enduring songs, from "There's No Business Like Show Business" to "Puttin' on the Ritz." Magee shows how Berlin's early experience singing for pennies made an impression on the young man, who kept hold of that sensibility throughout his career and transformed it into one of the defining attributes of Broadway shows. Magee also looks at darker aspects of Berlin's life, examining the anti-Semitism that Berlin faced and his struggle with depression. Informative, provocative, and full of colorful details, this book will delight song and theater aficionados alike as well as anyone interested in the story of a man whose life and work expressed so well the American dream.