Encyclopaedia Of The Musical Theatre

Contains approximately 2,700 alphabetically arranged entries that provide information about musical theater around the world during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, covering performers, composers, writers, shows, producers, directors, choreographers, and designers.

[V.1.] A-K -- [v.2.] L-Z.

This unique encyclopedia showcases the contribution of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer people to music, dance, and musical theater.

Contains approximately 2,700 alphabetically arranged entries that provide information about musical theater around the world during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, covering performers, composers, writers, shows, producers, directors, choreographers, and designers.

Drawing equally from Viennese operetta, Parisian cabaret, vaudeville, and Tin Pan Alley, the American musical theatre has thrived in an unprecedented variety of forms and styles as our truest hybrid art. From Show Boat and Oklahoma! to West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, and A Chorus Line, the musical has attracted our finest actors, composers, writers, directors, and choreographers. The greats and near-greats are finally brought together in this essential reference guide to over 2,000 personalities, productions, and songs of the musical theatre in both New York and London from the late nineteenth century right up to Sweeney Todd and Evita. Scholars, professionals, critics, and devoted fans alike will find a wealth of fascinating information on the backgrounds, plots, casts, scores, and credits of the leading musicals; biographies of their artists; and complete lists of Broadway, off-Broadway, and London productions, long runs, and awards. With a complete bibliography and discography.

Drawing equally from Viennese operetta, Parisian cabaret, vaudeville, and Tin Pan Alley, the American musical theatre has thrived in an unprecedented variety of forms and styles as our truest hybrid art. From Show Boat and Oklahoma! to West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, and A Chorus Line, the musical has attracted our finest actors, composers, writers, directors, and choreographers. The greats and near-greats are finally brought together in this essential reference guide to over 2,000 personalities, productions, and songs of the musical theatre in both New York and London from the late nineteenth century right up to Sweeney Todd and Evita. Scholars, professionals, critics, and devoted fans alike will find a wealth of fascinating information on the backgrounds, plots, casts, scores, and credits of the leading musicals; biographies of their artists; and complete lists of Broadway, off-Broadway, and London productions, long runs, and awards. With a complete bibliography and discography.

Aficionados of music, dance, opera, and musical theater will relish this volume featuring over 200 articles showcasing composers, singers, musicians, dancers, and choreographers across eras and styles. Read about Hildegard of Bingen, whose Symphonia expressed both spiritual and physical desire for the Virgin Mary, and George Frideric Handel, who not only created roles for castrati but was behind the Venetian opera's preoccupations with gender ambiguity. Discover Alban Berg’s Lulu, opera’s first openly lesbian character. And don’t forget Kiss Me Kate, the hit 1948 Broadway musical: written by Cole Porter, married though openly gay; directed by John C. Wilson, Noël Coward's ex-lover; and featuring Harold Lang, who had affairs with Leonard Bernstein and Gore Vidal. No single volume has ever achieved the breadth of this scholarly yet eminently readable compendium. It includes overviews of genres as well as fascinating biographical entries on hundreds of figures such as Peter Tchaikovsky, Maurice Ravel, Sergei Diaghilev, Bessie Smith, Aaron Copland, Stephen Sondheim, Alvin Ailey, Rufus Wainwright, and Ani DiFranco.

This indispensable guide is the reference book for anyone interested in musical film. Its fact-packed, alphabetically-arranged pages include over 1600 entries covering not only the most important actors, composers, lyricists, directors, choreographers, and producers but also the most memorable songs and best-loved films. Beginning in 1927 with The Jazz Singer--the first part-sound motion picture--the film entries provide brief plot outlines, behind-the-scenes information, all the songs from the particular film with the names of the singers (including songs ultimately cut from the film), roles played by the particular actors and actresses, plus names of composers, lyricists, directors, and collaborators, and much more. The volume also features listings of Motion Picture Academy nominations and winners, British and American film title changes, who played whom in what films, and a general bibliography and discography. Now in a newly revised paperback edition, it offers updated information on the people included in the book, additional films under existing entries, and the most recent Academy Award winners.