Short description:

Global in scope and featuring thirty-five chapters from more than fifty dance, music, and theatre scholars and practitioners, The Routledge Companion to Musical Theatre introduces the fundamentals of musical theatre studies and highlights developing global trends in practice and scholarship.

Long description:

Global in scope and featuring thirty-five chapters from more than fifty dance, music, and theatre scholars and practitioners, The Routledge Companion to Musical Theatre introduces the fundamentals of musical theatre studies and highlights developing global trends in practice and scholarship.

Investigating the who, what, when, where, why, and how of transnational musical theatre, The Routledge Companion to Musical Theatre is a comprehensive guide for those studying the components of musical theatre, its history, practitioners, audiences, and agendas. The Companion expands the study of musical theatre to include the ways we practice and experience musicals, their engagement with technology, and their navigation of international commercial marketplaces. The Companion is the first collection to include global musical theatre in each chapter, reflecting the musical?s status as the world?s most popular theatrical form. This book brings together practice and scholarship, featuring essays by leading and emerging scholars alongside luminaries such as Chinese musical theatre composer San Bao, Tony Award-winning star André De Shields, and Tony Award-winning director Diane Paulus.

This is an essential resource for students on theatre and performance courses and an invaluable text for researchers and practitioners in these areas of study.

Table of Contents:

Foreword

Diane Paulus

Part 1: What

Introduction: On Musicals

1. Musical Theater Mobilities: Around the World in Eighty Years





David Savran







2. An American in Tokyo? Musical Theatre Dance?s Transnational Movements





Ryan Donovan







3. "How a World Can Seem So Vast": The Craft of Musical Theatre Dramaturgy





Lindsey R. Barr and Laura MacDonald







4. The Singing Voice





Masi Asare







5. "The Song Is You": Song Types and Genres in Musical Theatre





William A. Everett




Part 2: When




Introduction: Dark Primal Energy, Ancestor Memory, and American Exceptionalism




André De Shields with Kenneth J. Cerniglia







6. From Ballad Opera to Minstrelsy and Back: Social Class, Race, and Gender on the North American Musical Stage





Kristin Moriah







7. From the 1870s through World War I: The Spectre and Spectacle of the Human Body





Maya Cantu







8. Boom to Bust: Genre Borders, Color Lines, and Women Stars in the Musical between the World Wars





Todd Decker







9. World War II and the Cold War:?Reflections and Refractions of Ourselves, Then and Now





Dominic McHugh







10. Since the 1980s: The Global Musical Theatre Ecology





Kelsey Blair




Part 3: Who




Introduction: Who Makes a Musical?




Georgia Stitt







11. Musical Theatre Training in the Twenty-First Century: A Primer





Amy S. Osatinski and Bud Coleman







12. "Forget About the Boy": Women and Creative Collaborations in Musical Theatre?





Arianne Johnson Quinn and Clare Chandler?







13. Good Gals Wear Black: Offstage Labor and the Musical





Christine Snyder







14. Mediated Taste: The Role of Critics





Paul R. Laird







15. From Stage Door to Cyberspace: The Digital Evolution of Musical Theatre Fandom





Adam Rush and Stephanie Lim




Part 4: How




Introduction: How Musicals Work: A Press Representative?s View




Chris Boneau







16. Fitting the Slipper: The Art of Adaptation for the Musical Stage





William A. Everett







17. Harnessing Technology: The Evolving Labor of Design in Musical Theatre





Virginia Anderson







18. Humming the Scenery: The Aesthetics of Musical Theatre Spectacle





Douglas L. Reside







19. "That?s Showbiz, Kid": Casting as Process and Product





Ryan Donovan







20. The Foundation, Function, and Future of the Musical Theatre Director





Mary Jo Lodge and Anne Healy







21. How Dancers and Choreographers Work: The Laboring Bodies of Musical Theatre





Joanna Dee Das







22. "The Name on Everybody?s Lips": Marketing Musical Theatre





Laura MacDonald







23. A Critical Guide to Code-Meshing, Multilingualism, and Musicals





Samuel Yates




Part 5: Where




Introduction: Scenes from a Showbiz Couple?s Travelogue




Kim Varhola







24. Centers of Musical Theatre





Alex Bádue, Jennifer C.H.J. Wilson, Laura Milburn, Leesi Patrick, and Sir Anril P. Tiatco







25. Pilots and Petticoats: Original Musicals in Continental Europe





Jeroen van Wijhe and Jacek Mikołajczyk







26. The Broadway-Style Musical in/and Global Asias: 1920-2019





Sissi Liu and Rina Tanaka







27. "One of the best ways to please the locals is to go to New York": US American Regional Theatres and New Musical Theatre Development





Claudia Wilsch Case







28. "We?re All in This Together": Student and Amateur Performances





Kenneth J. Cerniglia







29. Mediated Musical Theatre





Sam O?Connell




Part 6: Why




Introduction: Into the Theatre




Yilun (Della) Wu







30. Journeys to the Past: The Uses of Memory and Nostalgia in Musical Theatre





Bryan M. Vandevender







31. What?s in a Name? The Multiplicities of the Musical





John Koegel







32. Interrogating America?s National Myth Onstage: Case Studies on the Individual and the Community in U.S. Musical Theatre





Katie Welsh and Stacy Wolf







33. Translating Race in Musical Theatre





Ji Hon (Kayla) Yuh and Emilio Méndez Rios







34. "Art Isn?t Easy" (and Neither is Commerce): The Musical Stays in the Money





Michael Schwartz







35. "World"-Traveling, Diversity, Inclusion, and the Making of Musicals in the Twenty-First Century