A to Z of the Broadway Musical

The Broadway musical has greatly influenced American (and world) culture. Such shows as Oklahoma! and Annie Get Your Gun are as "American as apple pie," while the long runs of imports like Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and Les Misérables have broken records. Broadway has produced such cultural icons as Ethel Merman, Yul Brynner, and Julie Andrews, and composers and lyricists such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and many others have had their melodies sung on its stages. Visionaries like George Abbott, Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, Tommy Tune, and Susan Stroman have brought productions to life through their innovative direction and choreography.

Since the latter part of the 19th century, the Broadway musical has remained one of the most popular genres in entertainment and its history is related in detail in The A to Z of the Broadway Musical. Through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and 900 dictionary entries on Broadway shows, playwrights, directors, producers, designers, and actors, this handy desk reference offers quick information on the many aspects of the Broadway musical.

William A. Everett is associate professor and coordinator of musicology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance, where he also serves as chair of the Division of Composition, Music Theory, and Musicology.

Paul R. Laird is professor of musicology and director of the Musicology Division at the University of Kansas, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in music history and directs the Instrumental Collegium Musicum.