The Broadway Musical: A Critical and Musical Survey

by Joseph P. Swain

Book Overview

The Broadway musical, one of America's most distinctive contributions to Western music, has been chronicled, dissected, described, and debated, but never until now has its essential element--that glorious music--been analyzed directly in any significant detail. Moving beyond the anecdotes, production histories, and generalizations about theatrical style that mark so much of the critical literature, Joseph P. Swain offers a unique survey of the most...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195074823
• ISBN13: 9780195074826
• Release Date: July 1992
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Indispensible

This is one of the best books on musicals that I know of. It's serious about book, lyrics and music alike, and full of insight.The heart of the book is a series of studies of important musicals, one by each of a series of important writing teams (Kern/Hammerstein, Sondheim, Kander/Ebb, Rice/Lloyd Webber, Bock/Harnick -- Rodgers and Hammerstein get two chapters because of their importance). For each show, we get some interesting historical background, an outline of the plot, and detailed analysis of the music. The analysis is quite technical, but readable, and anyone can learn from it. Most importantly, it's not a dry analysis. The question Swain asks throughout is the question all musical writers should be asking themselves: how does the music help the show tell the story it wants to tell?He's not afraid to make strong judgements, either. He praises Jesus Christ Superstar for its eclectism and atmosphere, but considers that the reuse of tunes in different contexts in Evita robs them of narrative power; on this basis, he judges Evita a (relative) failure. His review of A Chorus Line is so hostile that the authors, uniquely for the shows under review in this book, refused him permission to use extracts from the score. Yet even in this review there's insight and sympathy. Read this book. It will educate your ears. You'll approach all musicals more intelligently after reading it.