After six volumes on the musical's history, decade
by decade from the 1920s through the 1970s, Ethan
Mordden takes an entirely fresh look at the musical,
from The Beggar's Opera to Wicked. Looking at the Star
Comic, the Sweetheart Heroine, the war between musical
comedy and operetta, the rise of the sexy story in the
1920s, the wedding of ballet and hoofing in the 1930s,
the Oklahoma! and Carousel "musical play" in the 1940s,
the Novelty Star in the 1950s, and other developments,
Mordden takes us from George Gershwin to Ethel Merman to
Jerome Robbins to the director-choreographer and the
offbeat contemporary show: Porgy and Bess, Gypsy,
Fiddler on the Roof, Chicago, A Chorus Line, Grand
Hotel, Grey Gardens, Rent. In his trademark style that
is at once scholarly, witty, and conversational, Mordden
emphasizes not only the writing of musicals but the
performing of them, taking the reader virtually into the
theatre to experience what a great show is like, whether
Victor Herbert's The Red Mill or Stephen Sondheim's
Follies. Considering the development of dance, the
author follows it from zany hoofing in the nineteenth
century through the tap "combinations" of the 1920s and
the injection of ballet and modern dance in the 1930s
and 1940s. Fred Astaire, George Balanchine, Agnes de
Mille, Michael Kidd, Bob Fosse, Gwen Verdon: theirs was
a time when dance seemed as crucial as music by Richard
Rodgers or lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.
Mordden examines also the changing role of the star,
noting how such early-twentieth-century headliners as
Fred Stone seldom varied their portrayals, whether as
the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz or Little Red
Ridinghood's fatherly guardian in The Stepping Stones.
But Ethel Merman turned stardom inside out in Gypsy,
acting her way through a character who was selfish,
fierce, and destructive, and today's stars are versatile
as a rule. From "ballad opera" and burlesque to the
sometimes indescribable titles of today, Anything Goes
tells where the musical came from and where it has been
heading ever since. A special feature of the book is the
extremely detailed discographical essay, a guide for
aficionado and student alike in exploring the recorded
archives.
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