ECU Libraries Catalog

The Oxford handbook of the British musical / edited by Robert Gordon and Olaf Jubin.

Other author/creatorGordon, Robert, 1951 November 28- editor.
Other author/creatorJubin, Olaf, editor.
Format Book and Print
Publication Info New York : Oxford University Press, 2016.
Descriptionxviii, 754 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm.
Subject(s)
Series [Oxford handbooks]
Oxford handbooks. ^A611862
Contents Part I: Brittannia rules: the early British musical and society -- Ballad opera: commercial song in enlightenment garb / Berta Joncus -- Between opera and musical: theatre music in early nineteenth-century London / Christine Furhmann -- Comic opera: English society in Gilbert and Sullivan / Carolyn Wiliams -- English musical comedy, 1890-1924 / Stephen Banfield -- English West End revue: the First World War and after / David Linton -- Part II: British or American: artistic differences -- Musical comedy in the 1920s and 1930s: Mister Cinders and Me and my girl as class-conscious carnival / George Burrows -- West End royalty: Ivor Novello and English operetta, 1917-1951 / Stewart Nicholls -- The American invasion: the impact of Oklahoma! and Annie get your gun / Dominic Symonds -- "Ordinary people" and British musicals of the post-war decade / John Snelson -- Part III: New approaches to form and subject matter -- After Anger: the British musical of the late 1950s / Elizabeth A. Wells -- "I'm common and I like 'em": represenations of class in the period musical after Oliver! / Ben Francis -- Towards a British concept musical: the shows of Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse / David Cottis -- The pop-music industry and the British musical / Ian Sapiro -- Part IV: "The British are coming" -- "Everybody's free to fail': subsidized British revivals of the American canon / Sarah Browne -- Les Misérables: from epic novel to epic musical / Kathryn M. Grossman and Bradley Stephens -- "Humming the sets": scenography and the spectacular musical from Cats to The Lord of the Rings / Christine White -- Billy Elliot and its lineage: the politics of class and sexual identity in British musicals since 1953 / Robert Gordon -- Part V: Trailblazers -- Noël Coward: sui generis / Dominic McHugh -- Joan Littlewood: collaboration and vision / Ben Macpherson -- Lionel Bart: British vernacular musical theatre / Millie Taylor -- Tim Rice: the pop star scenario / Olaf Jubin -- Cameron Mackintosh: control, collaboration, and the creative producer / Miranda Lundskaer-Nielsen -- Andrew Lloyd Webber: haunted by the Phantom / David Chandler -- Part VI: "The art of the possible": alternative approaches to musical theatre aesthetics -- The beggar's legacy: playing with music and drama, 1920-2003 / Robert Lawson-Peebles -- Mamma mia! and the aesthetics of the twenty-first century jukebox musical / George Rodosthenous -- Attracting the family market: shows with cross-generational appeal / Rebecca Warner -- Genre counterpoints: challenges to the mainstream musical / David Roesner -- Some yesterdays always remain: Black British and Anglo-Asian musical theatre / Ben Macpherson.
Abstract This book provides a comprehensive academic survey of British musical theatre offering both a historical account of the musical's development from 1728 and a range of in-depth critical analyses of the unique forms and features of British musicals, which explore the aesthetic values and sociocultural meanings of a tradition that initially gave rise to the American musical and later challenged its modern pre-eminence. After a consideration of how John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1728) created a prototype for eighteenth-century ballad opera, the book focuses on the use of song in early nineteenth century theatre, followed by a sociocultural analysis of the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan; it then examines Edwardian and interwar musical comedies and revues as well as the impact of Rodgers and Hammerstein on the West End, before analysing the new forms of the postwar British musical from The Boy Friend (1953) to Oliver! (1960). One section of the book examines the contributions of key twentieth century figures including Noel Coward, Ivor Novello, Tim Rice, Andrew Lloyd Webber, director Joan Littlewood and producer Cameron Macintosh, while a number of essays discuss both mainstream and alternative musicals of the 1960s and 1970s and the influence of the pop industry on the creation of concept recordings such as Jesus Christ Superstar (1970) and Les Misérables (1980). There is a consideration of "jukebox" musicals such as Mamma Mia! (1999), while essays on overtly political shows such as Billy Elliot (2005) are complemented by those on experimental musicals like Jerry Springer: the Opera (2003) and London Road (2011) and on the burgeoning of Black and Asian British musicals in both the West End and subsidized venues. The Oxford Handbook of the British Musical demonstrates not only the unique qualities of British musical theatre but also the vitality and variety of British musicals today.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages 697-705) and index.
LCCN2016014652
ISBN9780199988747
ISBN0199988749
ISBNOxford handbooks online

Available Items

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Music Music Stacks ML1731 .O94 2016 ✔ Available Place Hold