
The American Musical and the Performance of Personal Identity
Raymond Knapp(Author)
Princeton University Press
Published on 22. March 2009
Book
Paperback/Softback
480 pages
978-0-691-14105-3 (ISBN)
Description
The American musical has long provided an important vehicle through which writers, performers, and audiences reimagine who they are and how they might best interact with the world around them. Musicals are especially good at this because they provide not only an opportunity for us to enact dramatic versions of alternative identities, but also the material for performing such alternatives in the real world, through songs and the characters and attitudes those songs project. This book addresses a variety of specific themes in musicals that serve this general function: fairy tale and fantasy, idealism and inspiration, gender and sexuality, and relationships, among others. It also considers three overlapping genres that are central, in quite different ways, to the projection of personal identity: operetta, movie musicals, and operatic musicals. Among the musicals discussed are Camelot, Candide; Chicago; Company; Evita; Gypsy; Into the Woods; Kiss Me, Kate; A Little Night Music; Man of La Mancha; Meet Me in St. Louis; The Merry Widow; Moulin Rouge; My Fair Lady; Passion; The Rocky Horror Picture Show; Singin' in the Rain; Stormy Weather; Sweeney Todd; and The Wizard of Oz.
Complementing the author's earlier work, The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity, this book completes a two-volume thematic history of the genre, designed for general audiences and specialists alike.
Complementing the author's earlier work, The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity, this book completes a two-volume thematic history of the genre, designed for general audiences and specialists alike.
Reviews / Votes
"Brainy [and] meticulous... The bedrock idea in The American Musical and the Performance of Personal Identity is that the self is, on some level, a performance--and isn't a performance incomplete when there's no audience? Other people provide the receptivity and feedback that allow one to become a certain person, rather than another. Character is--to revert to that inspiring buzzword--collaboration."--Celia Wren, American Theatre "The American Musical and the Performance of Personal Identity is an insightful contribution to current scholarship on musical theatre. It integrates theoretical approaches based in both musicology and audience reception, and applies these approaches across the media of film and theatre. In so doing, it offers a transferable, revealing methodology for similarly sophisticated analyses of the role of musical theatre in American culture."--Diana Calderazzo, Theatre Journal "With an engaging and accessible style, Knapp examines the ways American national and personal identity are revealed and defined through the evolving twentieth-century genres of stage and film musicals."--Arthur Pritchard, Studies in Musical Theater "Raymond Knapp has an extraordinarily perceptive ear. As he surveys the history of the American musical, he hears things--important things, revelatory things--that earlier writers ... have missed."--Edward Green, Popular Music and Society "Knapp's writing is lively and elegant, his knowledge and research are exceedingly wide-ranging, and his observations are incisive and on-the-mark, often very funny, and frequently astonishing in their acuity."--Stacy Wolf, Modern Drama "The author offers excellent in-depth treatments of 31 shows, including stage, film, and television musicals."--Choice "Raymond Knapp has an extraordinarily perceptive ear. As he surveys the history of the American musical, he hears things--important things, revelatory things--that earlier writers who have attempted, systematically, to traverse this vast territory have missed. Hardly a page goes by without a 'Gee, I didn't realize that' moment... One of the loveliest features of these books is the generosity of the musical examples. Coordinated with the text are hundreds of musical excerpts which Princeton University Press has made available to readers through easy downloading from the Internet... It is clear that there is much to praise about Raymond Knapp's work, beginning with his vast knowledge of the subject and his infectious enthusiasm for it."--Edward Green, Popular Music and SocietyMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
31 halftones. 26 line illus. 1 table.
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
827 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-691-14105-3 (9780691141053)
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
06/2010
1st Edition
Princeton University Press
from
€35.89
Available for download
Person
Raymond Knapp is professor of musicology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of "The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity" (Princeton), winner of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. He has also published books on Brahms and Mahler.
Content
List of Figures ix Explanatory Note about Audio Examples xi Acknowledgments xiii Entr'acte 1 Part One: PERSONAL GENRES 15 Chapter 1: The Viennese Connection: Franz Leharand American Operetta 17 The Merry Widow (1907) 20 Naughty Marietta (1910) 31 Little Mary Sunshine (1959) 40 A Little Night Music (1973) 50 Chapter 2: The Movie Musical 65 Singin' in the Rain (film, 1952) 70 Stormy Weather (film, 1943) and Bamboozled (film, 2000) 79 Meet Me in St. Louis (film, 1944) 94 Moulin Rouge (film, 2001) and Chicago (film, 2002) 102 Part Two: PERSONAL THEMES 119 Chapter 3: Fairy Tales and Fantasy 121 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (animated film, 1937) 125 The Wizard of Oz (film, 1939) 131 Mary Poppins (film, 1964) 141 Into the Woods (1987) 150 Chapter 4: Idealism and Inspiration 164 Camelot (1960) 170 Man of La Mancha (1965) 180 The Scarlet Pimpernel (1997) 189 Once More, with Feeling (television, 2001) 196 Chapter 5: Gender and Sexuality 205 Annie Get Your Gun (1946) 209 Gypsy (1959) 215 Sweet Charity (1966) 228 The Rocky Horror Picture Show (film, 1975) 240 Hedwig and the Angry Inch (1998; film, 2001) 252 Chapter 6: Relationships 264 Lady in the Dark (1941) 266 Kiss Me, Kate (1948) 273 My Fair Lady (1956) 284 Company (1970) 293 Passion (1994) 303 Epilogue 311 Chapter 7: Operatic Ambitions and Beyond 313 Candide (1956) 317 Sweeney Todd (1979) 331 Evita (1979) 342 Appendix: Additional Resources 357 Notes 377 Bibliography 433 Index 449