{PRETITLE} Anything Goes: A History of American Musical Theatre {POSTTITLE}

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Author: Ethan Mordden
ISBN : B00DWZFMQW
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Download for free medical books PRETITLE Anything Goes: A History of American Musical Theatre POSTTITLE from mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link Ethan Mordden has been hailed as "a sharp-eared listener and a discerning critic," by Opera News, which compares his books to "dinner with a knowledgeable, garrulous companion." The "preeminent historian of the American musical" (New York Times), he "brings boundless energy and enthusiasm buttressed by an arsenal of smart anecdotes" (Wall Street Journal). Now Mordden offers an entirely fresh and infectiously delightful history of American musical theatre.

Anything Goes stages a grand revue of the musical from the 1920s through the 1970s, narrated in Mordden's famously witty, scholarly, and conversational style. He peers with us over Stephen Sondheim's shoulder as he composes at the piano. He places us in a bare rehearsal room as the cast of Oklahoma! changes history by psychoanalyzing the plot in the greatest of the musical's many Dream Ballets. And he gives us tickets for orchestra seats on opening night-raising the curtain on the pleasures of Victor Herbert's The Red Mill and the thrill of Porgy and Bess. Mordden examines the music, of course, but also more neglected elements. Dance was once considered as crucial as song; he follows it from the nineteenth century's zany hoofing to tap "combinations" of the 1920s, from the injection of ballet and modern dance in the 1930s and '40s to the innovations of Bob Fosse. He also explores the changing structure of musical comedy and operetta, and the evolution of the role of the star. Fred Stone, the avuncular Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, seldom varied his acting from part to part; but the versatile Ethel Merman turned the headlining role inside out in Gypsy, playing a character who was selfish, fierce, and destructive.

From "ballad opera" to burlesque, from Fiddler on the Roof to Rent, the history and lore of the musical unfolds here in a performance worthy of a standing ovation.Direct download links available for PRETITLE Anything Goes: A History of American Musical Theatre [Kindle Edition] POSTTITLE

• Product Details
• Table of Contents
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• File Size: 2074 KB
• Print Length: 358 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0199892830
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (August 8, 2013)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
  
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00DWZFMQW
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
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• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #185,759 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #14
    in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Arts & Photography > Music > Musical Genres > Musicals
  • #29
    in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Arts & Photography > Theater > Broadway & Musicals
• #14
  in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Arts & Photography > Music > Musical Genres > Musicals
• #29
  in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Arts & Photography > Theater > Broadway & Musicals

{PRETITLE} Anything Goes: A History of American Musical Theatre {POSTTITLE}

First off, I have to admit to being a fan of Ethan Mordden, and I have read every book on the musical theatre that he has written. This new publication is as its subtitle suggests a history of this most famous of art forms, so we start at the early birthing of the Beggar's Opera in 1728, and travel headlong through Gilbert & Sullivan, Burlesque, Variety Shows, 1920's Operetta and the development of the Musical Play, to land finally at the contemporary blockbuster of Stephen Schwartz's musical: Wicked.

The author has already produced a series of books on the 20/21st century decades of Musical Theatre, so this one is more than just a distillation of them. This new work has an entirely new text and covers areas of the origins previously unexplored. Mordden sees musical history as divided into four ages (the Golden Age being the third) and notices a form of devolution occurring after the achievements of Stephen Sondheim. This opinion is subjective of course, but I do tend to agree with him. He traces the evolution of the influence of director/choreographer to the art form, and acknowledges that integration of the varied constituents of song/story were already utilised long before the Show Boat of 1927. Mordden also corrects the myth that The Black Crook of 1866 was the first musical. On examination, he discovers that this unknown work does not truly share any of the elements that make a musical a musical.
He always brings an astute intelligence to his opinions and I can think of no one writing about Broadway as expert. I only wish he hadn't titled the book: Anything Goes, as that has too many associations with the Cole Porter classic musical, and I half expected this 346 paged hardback to be exclusively about the creation of that monument before I bought this publication.