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Palgrave Macmillan

The Palgrave Handbook of Musical Theatre Producers

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Editors:
  1. Laura MacDonald

    1. School of Media and Performing Arts, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom

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  2. William A. Everett

    1. Conservatory of Music and Dance, University of Missouri, Kansas City, USA

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Provides a wide ranging and highly accessible analysis of some of the biggest names within musical theatre production over the course of the genre's eventful history
  • Offers an exciting international and globalised perspective, highlighting commercial and non-commercial musical theatre ventures worldwide
  • Presents the first collection dedicated to the analysis of the work of the oft-misrepresented and undervalued role of the musical theatre producer

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About this book

This handbook is the first to provide a systematic investigation of the various roles of producers in commercial and not-for-profit musical theatre. Featuring fifty-one essays written by international specialists in the field, it offers new insights into the world of musical theatre, its creation and its promotion. Key areas of investigation include the lives and works of producers whose work is part of a US and worldwide musical theatre legacy, as well as the largely critically-neglected role of the musical theatre producer in the making, marketing, and performance of musicals. Also explored are the shifting roles of producers in musical theatre and their popular portrayals, offering a reader-friendly collection for fans, scholars, students, and practitioners of musical theatre alike.

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Table of contents (51 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xviii
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  2. Overture

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. A Ballyhoo for Producers

      • Laura MacDonald, William A. Everett
      Pages 3-10

    3. Actors Act. Directors Direct. Producers … Produce? Mel Brooks’s The Producers and the Creation of an Archetype

      • Kathryn Edney
      Pages 11-17

  3. Act 1. To the 1940s

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-19
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    2. Tony Pastor: The Father of Vaudeville

      • Gillian M. Rodger
      Pages 21-28

    3. Adolf Philipp and the German American Musical Comedy

      • John Koegel
      Pages 29-37

    4. George Edwardes: The Guv’nor of Late Victorian Musical Theatre

      • William A. Everett
      Pages 39-45

    5. Charles Frohman: King of the Star-Makers

      • Brian D. Valencia
      Pages 47-57

    6. Aggressive, Beleaguered, Commercial, Defiant: Marc Klaw and Abraham Erlanger

      • Marlis Schweitzer
      Pages 59-68

    7. Did the Shuberts Save Broadway? The Corporate Producers

      • Anthony Vickery
      Pages 69-82

    8. Sam Harris: A Producing Patron of Innovation

      • Alisa Roost
      Pages 83-94

    9. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.’s ‘Simple Idea’: Girls and Music in Tastefully Extravagant Settings

      • Todd Decker
      Pages 95-106

    10. Feather-Footed Impresario: The Scandals of George White

      • Maya Cantu
      Pages 107-118

    11. Alexander A. Aarons and Vinton Freedley: The Smart Sophisticates

      • Jennifer Ashley Tepper, William A. Everett
      Pages 119-125

    12. Coherency: Lew Fields, the Performer-Producer and Experimenter in Integration

      • Dominic Symonds
      Pages 127-135

    13. Firm Foundations: James Cassius Williamson and ‘The Firm’

      • Frank Van Straten
      Pages 137-144

    14. Japanese Women’s Popular Musicals: The Takarazuka Revue

      • Nobuko Anan
      Pages 145-150

  4. Act 2. From the 1940s through the 1970s

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 151-151
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    2. Refining the Tastes of Broadway Audiences: The Theatre Guild and American Musical Theatre

      • Claudia Wilsch Case
      Pages 153-161
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Editors and Affiliations

  • School of Media and Performing Arts, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom

    Laura MacDonald

  • Conservatory of Music and Dance, University of Missouri, Kansas City, USA

    William A. Everett

About the editors

Laura MacDonald is Senior Lecturer in Musical Theatre at the University of Portsmouth, UK, where she teaches musical theatre, dramaturgy, and critical theory. Her articles and reviews have appeared in Studies in Musical Theatre, The Journal of American Drama and Theatre, New England Theatre Journal, Theatre Research International, the SDC Journal, Theatre Journal and Theatre Survey.

William A. Everett is Curators’ Professor of Musicology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance, USA, where he teaches courses on a variety of subjects, including musical theatre and nineteenth-century music.  He is author, editor, or co-editor of numerous books on musical theatre and various other topics.

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