Musical!: A Grand Tour

MUSICAL! is a complete narrative history of the musical theater in the United States from the 19th century to the present day. Engaging, witty, and opinionated, this is a history that successfully navigates the course between academic lecture and entertaining survey.

Many histories of Broadway musicals are on the shelves, most of them taking the predictable path of chronological order, or by composer. Denny Martin Flynn's history follows a rough chronology, but instead examines the development of musicals in chapters divided by dominant personality ("Jerome Robbins and Oklahoma!"), by discipline ("Lyrics," "Bookwriters"), or by genre ("Revues," "The Rock Musical"). Though oddly apocalyptic toward the end, given the recent vitality of musicals, the book offers a useful, fresh perspective on the 20th-century history of a magical art form.