The Broadway Musical: A Critical and Musical Survey - Hardcover

To see a Broadway musical is to experience how a drama, using melody, harmony and rhythm, evokes the emotion needed to perpetuate a storyline. Without music, many of these plays would not succeed, failing to convey the intended message. This new edition of Swain's text reveals how a music drama achieves plot movement, character development and conflict through strategic placement of song and music in twenty musical plays. Unlike critical literature that has simply explored theatrical style and production histories, this survey focuses mainly on the power of music. Illustrated with more than 150 musical excerpts and essays, Swain includes the latest research and viewpoints of contemporary critics, offering insight into dramatic expression and hoe renowned composers including Jerome Kern, Georg Gershwin, Jerry Bock, Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber influenced the Broadway musical. This book reveals insights into the many impressive musicals to hit the stage between the years of 1927 and 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 dramas such as "Kiss Me, Kate" and "West Side Story", to more current dramas including "Godspell", "A Chorus Line" and "Jesus Christ Superstar". For professors of drmatic arts and people interested in Broadway musicals, theatre, popular music and opera.

Joseph Peter Swain is an Associate Professor of Music at Colgate University.