This new edition of Swain's classic award-winning text reveals how a musical drama achieves plot movement character development and conflict through strategic placement of music in twenty impressive productions. Included is the latest research and viewpoints of contemporary critics highlighting the various styles of important composers including Jerome Kern George Gershwin Jerry Bock Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber. This new edition is also replete with a never before seen essay on Les Mis-rables/I. An expanded epilogue offers insight into the phenomena behind Miss Saigon/I and Phantom of the Opera/I megamusicals which seemingly popularized the Broadway tradition. For people interested in Broadway Musicals theater popular music American music opera and/or twentieth-century music
This book provides insights into the many impressive musicals to hit the stage between the years of 1927 andWWWW 1987 illuminating how specific revisions to productions such as Showboat and Oklahoma! forever changed their popularity. Learn how music is used as a symbol for psychological or emotional action from Shakespearean drama's such as Kiss Me Kate and West Side Story to more current dramas including Godspell A Chorus Line and Jesus Christ Superstar.
 
