| Contents |
The American idea: George M. Cohan -- Oh, boy! Oh, lady!: Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse -- High jinks and pipe dreams: Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II -- Strike up the band: George S. Kaufman and fellow wits -- Blossom time: Dorothy Donnelly and other early librettists -- Hooray for anything red, hot and blue!: Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse -- Charley, Flora, Fiorello, and the Yankees: George Abbott and company -- The New Yorkers: the Fields family -- Flahooley's rainbow: E. Y. Harburg and fellow conspirators -- Applause on the town: Betty Comden and Adolph Green -- On a clear day: Alan Jay Lerner -- Flying high, taking a chance: B. G. De Sylva and others in the 1930s and 1940s -- Hallelujah, Gypsy!: Arthur Laurents -- Guys and dolls and stockings: Abe Burrows and others in the 1950s -- To the forum, in the park, into the woods: Stephen Sondheim's collaborators -- Carnival on the roof: Michael Stewart, Joseph Stein, and Peter Stone -- Getting an act together: Gretchen Cryer and others in the 1960s and 1970s -- The kiss of ragtime: Terrence McNally -- The producers: the 1980s, 1990s and beyond. |
| Abstract |
In this book, the author explores the careers, works, and characteristics of Broadway's major writers of libretto-- George Cohan, Mel Brooks, George S. Kaufman, Stephen Sondheim, and others--during the past 100 years, and how the growth and changes in the Broadway musical are reflected in their work. He argues that Sondheim was right to maintain that the book, not the music, comes first in the creation of a musical theatrical piece. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-249) and index. |
| LCCN | 2002007340 |
| ISBN | 0810844400 (hc : alk. paper) |
