Unstaged grief : musicals and mourning in midcentury America / Jake Johnson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Johnson, Jake, 1984- author.

Series:

Music in American life

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Musical films--United States--History and criticism.

Musical films.

Television musicals--United States--History and criticism.

Television musicals.

Motion pictures--United States--History--20th century.

Motion pictures.

Television programs--United States--History--20th century.

Television programs.

Motion pictures--Social aspects--United States.

Television programs--Social aspects--United States.

Grief.

grief.

Physical Description:

xi, 139 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2025]

Summary:

"Often dismissed as escapism, screen musicals of the 1960s in fact tapped into unspoken sadness about an America that was slipping away. Jake Johnson delves into film and television musicals of the era to examine their place in networks of grieving in America, for America, and about America. The Golden Age of musical theater ended just as Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's On Death and Dying debuted, and Johnson uses Kübler-Ross's five stages to frame the intertwining of musicals and grief. He analyzes films like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and State Fair alongside paintings, poetry, and other images and texts to reveal how the musical theater engine built in the first half of the century broke down just as a new language emerged to describe the melancholy felt by people facing the end of the world they had known. Nuanced and original, Unstaged Grief plumbs the grief, loss, and hope behind the Technicolor spectacle and rousing showstoppers"-- Provided by publisher.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Johnson, Jake. Unstaged grief

ISBN:

9780252046339

0252046331

9780252088407

0252088409

OCLC:

1445837449