Enchanted Evenings
The Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber
2nd Edition
Published on 12. November 2009
Book
Paperback/Softback
482 pages
978-0-19-538400-0 (ISBN)
Description
This new second edition of Enchanted Evenings offers theater lovers an illuminating behind-the-scenes tour of some of America's best loved, most admired, and most enduring musicals.
Readers will find such all-time favorites as Show Boat, Carousel, Kiss Me, Kate, Guys and Dolls, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, and Phantom of the Opera. Geoffrey Block provides a documentary history of each of the musicals, showing how each work took shape and revealing, at the same time, how the American musical evolved from the 1920s to today, both on stage and on screen. The book's particular focus is on the music, offering a wealth of detail about how librettist, lyricist, composer, and director work together to shape the piece. Block also includes trenchant social commentary and lively backstage anecdotes. Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, Kurt Weill, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, Frank Loesser, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and other luminaries emerge as hardworking craftsmen under enormous pressure to sell tickets without compromising their dramatic vision. The second edition includes a greatly expanded chapter on Sondheim, a new chapter on Lloyd Webber, and two new chapters on the film adaptations of the main musicals featured in the text (including such hard to find films as the original 1936 version of Anything Goes and the 1959 film adaptation of Porgy and Bess).
Packed with information, including a complete discography and plot synopses and song-by-song scenic outlines for each of the fourteen shows, Enchanted Evenings is an essential reference as well as a riveting history.
"A solid and fascinating work that should become a model of how to investigate and report on the evolution of a musical. Block's research is persuasive and his writing vivid. . . Indispensable for anyone who cares to know more about Broadway musicals than Playbill can provide."
--Steven Bach, The Los Angeles Times Book Review
Readers will find such all-time favorites as Show Boat, Carousel, Kiss Me, Kate, Guys and Dolls, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, and Phantom of the Opera. Geoffrey Block provides a documentary history of each of the musicals, showing how each work took shape and revealing, at the same time, how the American musical evolved from the 1920s to today, both on stage and on screen. The book's particular focus is on the music, offering a wealth of detail about how librettist, lyricist, composer, and director work together to shape the piece. Block also includes trenchant social commentary and lively backstage anecdotes. Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, Kurt Weill, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, Frank Loesser, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and other luminaries emerge as hardworking craftsmen under enormous pressure to sell tickets without compromising their dramatic vision. The second edition includes a greatly expanded chapter on Sondheim, a new chapter on Lloyd Webber, and two new chapters on the film adaptations of the main musicals featured in the text (including such hard to find films as the original 1936 version of Anything Goes and the 1959 film adaptation of Porgy and Bess).
Packed with information, including a complete discography and plot synopses and song-by-song scenic outlines for each of the fourteen shows, Enchanted Evenings is an essential reference as well as a riveting history.
"A solid and fascinating work that should become a model of how to investigate and report on the evolution of a musical. Block's research is persuasive and his writing vivid. . . Indispensable for anyone who cares to know more about Broadway musicals than Playbill can provide."
--Steven Bach, The Los Angeles Times Book Review
Reviews / Votes
Enchanted Evenings is a superb read. * Theatermania.com * I can't think of another book, on any subject, in which the author shows such firm control over his materials, in this case scholarly as well as journalistic writing on the Broadway musical, reviews of shows, correspondence, the music itself, and archival materials of various sorts relating to the early stages of creation. Enchanted Evenings is fascinating, original, compelling. * Charles Hamm, Professor Emeritus of Music, Dartmouth College, and author, Irving Berlin: 1907-1914 * A solid and fascinating work that should become a model of how to investigate and report on the evolution of a musical. . . [Block's] research is persuasive and his writing vivid. . . Indispensable for anyone who cares to know more about Broadway musicals than Playbill can provide. * Steven Bach, The Los Angeles Times Book Review * Some of the smartest commentary available about American musical theater * Joel E. Siegel, The Washington Post *More details
Edition
2nd Revised edition
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Edition type
Revised edition
Illustrations
15 ht, 64 lines
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
776 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-538400-0 (9780195384000)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
10/2009
2nd Edition
OUP eBook
€16.49
Available for download
E-Book
10/2009
2nd Edition
OUP eBook
€24.99
Available for download
Previous edition
Book
02/2004
Oxford University Press Inc
€13.62
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
Geoffrey Block, Distinguished Professor of Music History at the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington, is the author of Ives: "Concord" Sonata (Cambridge, 1996) and Richard Rodgers, the inaugural volume of the Yale Broadway Masters series, for which he serves as general editor. He is also the editor of The Richard Rodgers Reader (Oxford, 2002) and the Series Editor for Oxford's new Broadway Legacies.
Content
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION; PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; APPENDIX A. SOURCES, PUBLISHED LIBRETTOS, AND VOCAL SCORES; APPENDIX B. LONG RUNS 1920S-1980S; APPENDIX C. THE FORTY LONGEST-RUNNING BOOK MUSICALS ON BROADWAY; APPENDIX D. SHOW BOAT; APPENDIX E. ANYTHING GOES; APPENDIX F. PORGY AND BESS: SONGS, ARIAS, AND THEMES; APPENDIX G. ON YOUR TOES: BROADWAY 1936 AND BROADWAY REVIVAL 1983; APPENDIX H. PAL JOEY: BROADWAY 1940 AND BROADWAY REVIVAL 1952; APPENDIX I. THE CRADLE WILL ROCK: BROADWAY 1937; APPENDIX J. LADY IN THE DARK: BROADWAY 1941; APPENDIX K. ONE TOUCH OF VENUS: BROADWAY 1943; APPENDIX L. CAROUSEL: BROADWAY 1945; APPENDIX M. KISS ME, KATE: BROADWAY 1948; APPENDIX N. GUYS AND DOLLS: BROADWAY 1950; APPENDIX O. THE MOST HAPPY FELLA: BROADWAY 1956; APPENDIX P. MY FAIR LADY: BROADWAY 1956; APPENDIX Q. WEST SIDE STORY: BROADWAY 1957; APPENDIX R. FOLLIES: BROADWAY 1971 AND LONDON REVIVAL 1987; NOTES; SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY; INDEX