The Oxford Handbook of the American Musical

The Oxford Handbook of the American Musical presents keywords and critical terms that deepen analysis and interpretation of the musical. Taking into account issues of composition, performance, and reception, the book's contributors bring a wide range of practical and theoretical perspectives to bear on their considerations of one of America's most lively, enduring artistic traditions.

Raymond Knapp is Professor of Musicology at UCLA. His books include Symphonic Metamorphoses: Subjectivity and Alienation in Mahler's Re-Cycled Songs (2003), The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity (2005), The American Musical and the Performance of Personal Identity (2006), and Musicological Identities: Essays in Honor of Susan McClary (2008, co-edited with Steven Baur and Jacqueline Warwick).
Mitchell Morris is Associate Professor of Musicology at UCLA; among his research interests are Russian & Soviet Music; 20th century American music; opera; gender & sexuality; psychoanalysis; problems of musical ethics; and ecocriticism. In addition to his scholarly work, he is also a frequent collaborator with the Los Angeles Opera.

Introduction (Stacy Wolf)
I. Historiography
1. Narratives and Values: Stories of the Musical (Mitchell Morris)
2. Texts and Authors (Jim Lovensheimer)
3. Marian Waltzes while Harold Marches: Musical Styles and Types in the American Musical (Paul Laird)
4. Evolution of Dance in the Golden Age of the American "Book Musical" (Liza Gennaro)
II. Transformations
5. Minstrelsy and Theatrical Miscegenation (Thomas L. Riis)
6. Toward the First "Golden Age": Tin Pan Alley Songs on Stage and Screen before World War II (Raymond Knapp and Mitchell Morris)
7. Integration (Geoffrey Block)
8. After the "Golden Age" (Jessica Sternfeld and Elizabeth L. Wollman)
III. Media
9. Theatre (Tamsen Wolff)
10. The Filmed Musical: Fissures and Fusions between Stage and Screen (Raymond Knapp and Mitchell Morris)
11. The Television Musical: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (Robynn J. Stilwell)
12. The Animated Film Musical (Susan Smith)
13. Broadway on Records: The Evolution of the Original Cast Album (George Reddick)
IV. Identities
14. Race, Ethnicity, Performance (Todd Decker)
15. Gender and Sexuality (Stacy Wolf)
16. The Politics of Region and Nation in American Musicals (Chase A. Bringardner)
17. Class and Culture (David Savran)
V. Performance
18. Putting It Together: The Institutional Structure of the American Musical Theatre (David Sanjek)
19. Orchestration and Arrangement: Creating the Broadway Sound (Dominic Symonds)
20. "Razzle Dazzle 'Em": Musical Theatre Directors from Abbott to Zaks (Barbara Wallace Grossman)
21. What You See: Sets, Costumes, Lights, and Spectacle (Virginia Anderson)
22. Acting (John Clum)
23. Singing (Mitchell Morris and Raymond Knapp)
24. Dance and Choreography (Zachary Dorsey)
VI. Audiences
25. Box Office (Steven Adler)
26. Audiences and Critics (Michelle Dvoskin)
27. Stars and Fans (Holley Replogle-Wong)
28. Knowing Your Audience: Community and High School Musical Theatre Production (Jennifer Chapman)
29. Performance, Authenticity, and the Reflexive Idealism of the American Musical (Raymond Knapp)
Bibliography