The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television (Oxford Companions)
Grade 9 Up—FromThe Beggar's Opera(1750) andThe Black Crook(1866) toWicked(2003) andHigh School Musical 2(2007), this volume offers a clearly written, comprehensive overview of the American musical theater on the stage, silver screen, and small screen. The 2000-plus entries are brief but detailed accounts of plots; production histories; careers of actors, dancers, musicians, lyricists, composers, choreographers, and directors; organizations; and genres (animated musicals, frontier musicals). Small icons identify the title entries as stage, film, or TV shows. Cast lists in shaded text boxes include members of different productions of the same work. Other boxes list songs from many of the best-known shows and information such as "Longest-Running Off-Broadway Musicals" and "Musicals Nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award." Related biographies and autobiographies are listed at the end of the personal entries. Black-and-white captioned photographs are scattered throughout. The opening "List of Entries" helps make this a browsing delight for casual fans, while appendixes that include "Awards," "Guide to Recordings," and a bibliography of general works about musicals make it a valuable tool for researchers. This thorough work provides enjoyable reading for anyone interested in American theatrical history in general and musicals in particular.—Ginny Gustin, Sonoma County Library System, Santa Rosa, CACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.