This Critical Companion to the American Stage Musical provides the perfect introductory text for students of theatre, music and cultural studies. It traces the history and development of the industry and art form in America with a particular focus on its artistic and commercial development in New York City from the early 20th century to the present. Attention is paid to the series of commercial, artistic and cultural collisions that occurred during the century, each of which helped transform the stage musical for an ever-renewing, increasingly broad and diverse audience: the jazz age, the World War II era, the Off Off Broadway movement in the 1960s, the British invasion in the 1980s, and the media age at the turn of the century.
A number of supplementary essays by other leading scholars provide a sharp focus on a couple of productions that best exemplify each of the cultural collisions that helped shape the art form. For students they provide models of varying approaches and interpretation, equipping them with the skills and understanding to develop their own analysis of key productions.
