Title: An accurate, entertaining, organized...PROVOCATIVE book
Product review: I've been teaching from this book for four years now. Rather than meandering around in the early days blathering about THE BLACK CROOK, Bush Jones immediately identifies the twin roots of today's American musical theatre: Gilbert & Sullivan (specifically PINAFORE) and Vaudeville. From there he's off and running. He gives us successors to those roots: Ziegfield - vaudeville, Cohan - G&S with an American twist and gives us sparkling details and cogent WHYS. He gives SHOWBOAT, OKLAHOMA!, WEST SIDE STORY and COMPANY their due as landmark, game-changing pieces, without fawning excessively over them, and credits The Princess Theatre Musicals (VERY GOOD EDDIE etc.) as a cauldron of experimentation, PAL JOEY, and URINETOWN as tinkerers that improved the form. I wish he'd update it, but it's VERY good as it is.
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