The Rise and Fall of the Broadway Musical

by Mark N. Grant

Book Overview

Winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award (2005)Many of today's Broadway shows, from Rent to The Lion King, have become commercial hits, but do they have the cultural importance or the dramatic and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1555536425
• Release Date: July 2005
• Publisher: Northeastern University Press
• Length: 392 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.3" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

A Smash Hit!

Mark N. Grant's first book -- "Maestros of the Pen: A History of Classical Music Criticism in America" -- was excellent (I'm not alone in this opinion: it won an ASCAP-Deems Taylor award). If anything, "The Rise and Fall of the Broadway Musical" is even better. It has the same acute analysis (at once sophisticated, and accessible to the "layman")and narrative momentum that characterized the first book. It is spiced with fascinating anecdotes. And it is ingeniously organized. Thus, rather than setting out a strictly chronological presentation of the history of the Broadway musical, it is organized according to the key elements of this art form: singing, book and lyrics (with a subset addressing the effect, on lyrics and dramatic flow, of changes in rhythmic paradigms), sound design, and direction and choreography. Essentially, it is the same story, but told from four very different points of view. The reader's understanding deepens with each shift of perspective. Furthermore, this ingenious device facilitates the coherent development of Grant's argument -- i.e., that what he perceives as the "fall" of the Broadway musical (beginning circa 1966, with the end of the "Golden Age") results from the corruption of, and/or disproportionate emphasis upon, one or or another of these elements. Whether or not you disagree with Grant's argument, his narrative will engage you because it makes you re-evaluate your own opinions. Even if your views do not change as a result of this book, you will find that they have been strengthened by the challenge. In short, I highly recommend "Rise and Fall" to anyone with an interest in music, musicals, American culture, the anatomy of the creative process, or any of the above. You are in for a treat!

Exhilarating and depressing at once

This is one of the most incisive surveys I've ever read of this vital American art form. The Golden Age of the musical, from 1927 to around 1964, gave us great art that was truly for the masses. Grant's analyses of singing styles, song types, and musical trends, is peerless. His remarks on how the microphone has damaged performance technique are vital to his thesis. It's utterly thrilling to read his narrative of how the musical grew into the glorious product of Broadway's Golden Age. But it also depresses me to consider that the musical as I've always loved it is probably doomed. This book should be required reading for every actor, director, sound designer, conductor, and arranger working on Broadway.

history and critique of Broadwaty musicals

Grant dates the golden age of the Broadway musical between 1927-1966, epitomized by the legendary pair Rodgers and Hammerstein and their musical "Oklahoma," among others. No one would argue with this. But Grant is concerned with more than expounding why this was the golden age. He is also concerned with what happened in Broadway and the general culture toward the end of the 1960s to bring this golden age to an end. He finds his answers in both technological and social changes which practically everyone is aware of, but which readers would not look to as reasons for the decline of such musicals. The spread of electronic music changed what audiences became accustomed to. Rock and other popular music ruined an appreciation for the brightness, simplicity, and style of the type of music and songs of the classical Broadway musical. Along with this, changing tastes in entertainment favored special effects, dancing, and often celebrities as actors over fetching scores and memorable melodies. "Director-Choreographers Co-opted a Writer's Medium" is how Grant puts it. The factors Grant sees as responsible for the decline in the quality--if not always the box office receipts--of Broadway musicals at their best is evident in the way Broadway musicals are advertised and marketed today. The author is a composer and writer who had done concert music and theater pieces performed in the U. S. and Europe. His previous book is "Pen: A History of Classical Music Criticism in America." This is a work combining literary and artistic criticism and history with cultural studies on one of the most characteristic American popular art forms.

Well written

It's chock full of enough details to satisfy the professional musicologist yet entertaining enough to interest the casual reader. Well written, with a point of view that he follows up through the history of the form. I couldn't put it down.

Louisville Courier Journal

"Mark N Grant is a wonderful writer, who offers a true cavalcade of Broadway history"