Mordden, Ethan - Anything Goes

After six volumes on the musical's history, working decade by decade from the 1920s through the 1990s, 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.

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CONTENTS

Introduction
THE FIRST AGE
1. Source Material
2. The Age of Burlesque
3. At the Turn of the Century
THE SECOND AGE
4. The Witch of the Wood and the Bamboo Tree
5. Victor Herbert
6. The New Music
7. The Variety Show
THE THIRD AGE
8. The Structure of the Twenties Musical Comedy
9. The Structure of the Twenties Operetta
10. Dancing in the Dark
11. Blue Monday Blues
12. The Rodgers and Hammerstein Handbook
13. Something to Dance About
14. After West Side Story
15. The Sondheim Handbook
THE FOURTH AGE
16. Devolutions
17. That Is the Stae of the Art
FOR FURTHER READING
DISCOGRAPHY
INDEX