Transposing Broadway : Jews, assimilation, and the American musical / Stuart J. Hecht.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hecht, Stuart Joel, 1955-

Series:

Palgrave studies in theatre and performance history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Musicals--United States--History--20th century.

Musicals.

Jews--Cultural assimilation--United States.

Jews.

Jews--Cultural assimilation.

History.

United States.

Jews--United States--Identity.

Identity (Philosophical concept).

Physical Description:

240 pages ; 22 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Summary:

Over the last hundred years, musical theatre artists from Berlin to Rodgers and Hammerstein to Sondheim - have developed a form that corresponds directly to the Americanization of the increasingly Jewish New York audience, and that audience's aspiration's and concerns have played out in the shows themselves Musicals rims became a paradigm which instructed newcomers m how to assimilate while correspondingly envisioning "American Dream" America as democratic and inclusive Broadway musicals still continue to function today as "cultural Elis Islands" for fringe populations seeking acceptance into the nation's mainstream including women, blacks, Latinos, and gays all essentially modeled upon the Jewish example Stuart J Hecht offers a fascinating examination of the relationship between Jews, assimilation, and the changing face of the American musical. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: Broadway as a cultural Ellis Island

Hello, young lovers: assimilation and dramatic configurations in the American musical

The melting pot paradigm of Irving Berlin

How to succeed

Cinderellas

Turns of the century: dreams of progress, dreams of loss

Fiddler's children

Lovable monsters: an epilogue.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [221]-226) and index.

ISBN:

9780230113275

0230113273

OCLC:

719428019