Summary
McMillin also poses a crucial question: "There is a challenge involved, and it is offered to the universities: are we in universities able to use our methods of analysis-historical, musical, literary, philosophical -and still get this form of popular entertainment right?" (p. xi) Certainly if musical theater history has had a weak spot, it is that few scholars can be adept in all of these areas at the same time and conduct research that adequately addresses the multifariousness of the genre while at the same time representing it realistically. By using a couple of examples, most notably the opening scene from Oklahoma!, the author compares the level of detail, dramatic effect, and sense of elapsed time between the original play by Lynn Riggs and the musical version of the same scene by Rodgers and Hammerstein.
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Extract
The Musical As Drama: A Study of the Principles and Conventions Behind Musical Shows From Kern to Sondheim
MUSICAL THEATER The Musical as Drama: A Study of the Principles and Conventions behind Musical Shows from Kern to Sondheim. By Scott McMillin. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. [xvi, 230 p. ISBN-10 0-691-12740-1; ISBN-13 978-0-691-12730-9. $24.95.] Illustrations, bibliography, index.
Rarely does a book come along that seems to elegantly summarize what has come before while taking its subject to the next level. T...See the full content of this document
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