The Big Parade
Meredith Willson's Musicals from The Music Man to 1491
Published on 29. September 2021
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-19-755473-9 (ISBN)
Description
In the 1950s, Meredith Willson's The Music Man became the third longest running musical after My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music: a considerable achievement in a decade that saw the premieres of other popular works by Rodgers and Hammerstein and Lerner and Loewe, not to mention Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls and Bernstein and Sondheim's West Side Story. The Music Man remains a popular choice for productions and has been parodied or quoted on television shows ranging from Family Guy to Grace and Frankie.
Though Willson is best remembered for The Music Man, there is a great deal more to his career as a composer and lyricist. In The Big Parade, author Dominic McHugh uses newly uncovered letters, manuscripts, and production files to reveal Willson's unusual combination of experiences in his pre-Broadway career that led him to compose The Music Man at the age of 55. McHugh also gives an in depth look at the reception of The Music Man and examines the strengths and weaknesses of Willson's other three musicals, with his sustained commitment to innovation and novelty. The Big Parade is packed with new revelations about the processes involved in writing these works, as well as the trials and tribulations of working in the commercial theatre.
Though Willson is best remembered for The Music Man, there is a great deal more to his career as a composer and lyricist. In The Big Parade, author Dominic McHugh uses newly uncovered letters, manuscripts, and production files to reveal Willson's unusual combination of experiences in his pre-Broadway career that led him to compose The Music Man at the age of 55. McHugh also gives an in depth look at the reception of The Music Man and examines the strengths and weaknesses of Willson's other three musicals, with his sustained commitment to innovation and novelty. The Big Parade is packed with new revelations about the processes involved in writing these works, as well as the trials and tribulations of working in the commercial theatre.
Reviews / Votes
Scholars, fans, and performers alike will find much to celebrate and awe over in this book, which alone is a magnificent accomplishment. * Jake Johnson, Journal of Musicological Research * The legacy of Meredith Willson is hugely enhanced by this fine, meticulous, and compelling book by Dominic McHugh, whose perspective as a researcher and talent as a writer coalesce into a book that reveals much previously unknown information about a hidden giant of the theatrical and musical world. * Michael Feinstein, Singer, Founder of The Great American Songbook Foundation * Dominic McHugh has done two remarkable things: written a well-documented and rich history of Willson's The Music Man and his other, lesser-known musicals, and filled an important void in musical theatre history. This book will fill a niche in our understanding of this time period and build on the work of other notable historians in painting a picture of one of the most fertile periods of musical theatre. * Elizabeth Wells, Professor, Mount Allison University * Writing a book on a Broadway creator who has long been overlooked and deemed by many as second-rate presents significant challenges; taking on the additional task of exploring that artist's unfamiliar works makes the job even harder. And yet McHugh has done both, and the result convincingly repositions Willson as a giant in his field and of his times. The Big Parade not only fills a gap but also serves as a model for other writers. McHugh has once again demonstrated how to conduct archival research with a mixture of contextual and analytical tools to exploremeaningfully the careers and works of Broadway practitioners whose lives exist along the musical margins of the literature and deserve much more. * Lara E. Housez, Notes *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 163 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
565 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-755473-9 (9780197554739)
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
05/2021
OUP eBook
€9.99
Available for download
E-Book
05/2021
OUP eBook
€9.99
Available for download
Person
Dominic McHugh is Professor of Musicology at the University of Sheffield. He has published widely on the Broadway and Hollywood musicals, including six previous books, and has collaborated with many of the world's leading arts organisations, ranging from the Sydney Opera House to the Library of Congress.
Content
Foreword by Series Editor Geoffrey Block
Chapter 1: Seeking the Roots of The Music Man: Meredith Willson's Cultural Eclecticism
Chapter 2: From The Silver Triangle to The Music Man: Creating the Book for an Original Musical
Chapter 3: Composing the Score for a Musical about Music
Chapter 4: Marching Still Right Today: The Music Man from Philadelphia to Broadway and Beyond
Chapter 5: After The Music Man: The Unsinkable Molly Brown in the Shadow of a Hit
Chapter 6: Singing through Evil Times: Here's Love, Miracle on 34rd Street, and the Challenge of the Musical Adaptation
Chapter 7: 1491: The Final Voyage
Index
Chapter 1: Seeking the Roots of The Music Man: Meredith Willson's Cultural Eclecticism
Chapter 2: From The Silver Triangle to The Music Man: Creating the Book for an Original Musical
Chapter 3: Composing the Score for a Musical about Music
Chapter 4: Marching Still Right Today: The Music Man from Philadelphia to Broadway and Beyond
Chapter 5: After The Music Man: The Unsinkable Molly Brown in the Shadow of a Hit
Chapter 6: Singing through Evil Times: Here's Love, Miracle on 34rd Street, and the Challenge of the Musical Adaptation
Chapter 7: 1491: The Final Voyage
Index