Overview

The world of musicals is beautiful, complex, hilarious, hard-headed, and improbable. It is as hard to make a great musical as it is to fly a spaceship to the moon and there are at least as many moving parts. Why is a great musical as significant a theatrical achievement as, say, King Lear? In this entertaining new title in Oberon Masters Series, Ruth Leon tells all about the composers, the lyricists, the directors and the pioneers of the stage musical on both sides of the Atlantic while trying to reveal the truth behind the eternal question - what are musicals and why do we love them?

Full Product Details

9781849430180

Table of Contents

Reviews

light-hearted but informative... [has] an air of authority... is also beautifully bound: a slim, smart, slightly old-fashioned looking hardback. -- What's on stage.com a slim and succinct account of the handful of 20th century musicals which, in Leon's very well informed and experienced opinion, have changed the genre for ever... I learned a great deal. Buy it for the musical theatre students on your list and for anyone else who loves or works with musicals and might like to know more about the background of the pivotal ones. -- The Stage [a] whirlwind tour through musical theatre history.. breezy and authoritative... This book may be small but, like all the great shows about which Leon writes, it is perfectly formed -- Jewish Chronicle

light-hearted but informative... [has] an air of authority... is also beautifully bound: a slim, smart, slightly old-fashioned looking hardback. -What's on stage.com a slim and succinct account of the handful of 20th century musicals which, in Leon's very well informed and experienced opinion, have changed the genre for ever... I learned a great deal. Buy it for the musical theatre students on your list and for anyone else who loves or works with musicals and might like to know more about the background of the pivotal ones. -The Stage [a] whirlwind tour through musical theatre history.. breezy and authoritative... This book may be small but, like all the great shows about which Leon writes, it is perfectly formed -Jewish Chronicle  light-hearted but informative [has] an air of authority is also beautifully bound: a slim, smart, slightly old-fashioned looking hardback.  What's on stage.com a slim and succinct account of the handful of 20th century musicals which, in Leon's very well informed and experienced opinion, have changed the genre for ever... I learned a great deal. Buy it for the musical theatre students on your list and for anyone else who loves or works with musicals and might like to know more about the background of the pivotal ones.  The Stage [a] whirlwind tour through musical theatre history.. breezy and authoritative This book may be small but, like all the great shows about which Leon writes, it is perfectly formed  Jewish Chronicle

light-hearted but informative... [has] an air of authority... is also beautifully bound: a slim, smart, slightly old-fashioned looking hardback. -- What's on stage.com <br><br> a slim and succinct account of the handful of 20th century musicals which, in Leon's very well informed and experienced opinion, have changed the genre for ever... I learned a great deal. Buy it for the musical theatre students on your list and for anyone else who loves or works with musicals and might like to know more about the background of the pivotal ones. <br>-- The Stage <br><br> [a] whirlwind tour through musical theatre history.. breezy and authoritative... This book may be small but, like all the great shows about which Leon writes, it is perfectly formed -- Jewish Chronicle <br><br><br>

Author Information

RUTH LEON is a writer, editor, producer and international authority on the musical theatre, who has worked with an astonishing line of talent stretching from Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, back to earlier giants of American music such as Agnes de Mille and Aaron Copland. She is also a biographer (of giants such as Gershwin), and theatre and TV director.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available