Musical!: A Grand Tour

by Denny Martin Flinn

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.

Genres: Theatre, Nonfiction

556 pages, Hardcover

First published April 17, 1997

Reviews

[Timothy Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A somewhat pessimistic take on the future of musical theater, but I find myself referencing this book more often than not when discussing musicals.

[Diane Graft · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can recommend only the first half of this book. Flinn traces the history of theater, and particularly musical theater, in some depth. He looks at the development of American musical theater, from the imported productions of Gilbert & Sullivan through the early revues such as the Zigfeld Follies, through to the era of classic Rogers and Hammerstein musicals. He does a good job of analyzing what influenced the writers, composers, and lyricists, how songs and dance came to be integrated into the storylines, and Hollywood's influence on Broadway and vice versa. If he had stopped there, or continued in this vein, I would have given this book a rather good review.

However, once he reaches the 70's the book makes a shift from analysis to opinion. Flinn had previously written a behind-the-scenes book on the development and production of "A Chorus Line", and performed in a Las Vegas production of it as well. The rest of "Musical, A Grand Tour", is dedicated to proclaiming that "A Chorus Line" was the pinnacle of the Broadway show, and that everything has been in decline ever since. This book was published in 1997, and so all the shows of the 80's and 90's are derided as inferior in some way or other. He pooh-poohs rock musicals, calls Tim Rice a hack lyricist, and describes Andrew Lloyd Webber's incredibly popular shows as banal and shallow. He enthuses about Sondheim's early work, but then has only criticism for his brilliant "Into the Woods", "Sunday in the Park with George" and "Sweeney Todd". Nothing written after "A Chorus Line" meets with his approval.

Listening to this tirade reminds me of listening to my Aunt Rose talk about music history. She would speak in great detail, and with great affection, about all of music history up until 1950. Then her tone would shift "And then Rock & Roll happened and killed music. Everything after that has been terrible!" If you are looking for a thoughtful analysis of modern musicals, this book isn't it.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was my textbook for an actual class i took, but it was a fairly alright book i guess. it was released like a year after i was born (so in 1997) so a lot of things are outdated (ESPECIALLY the appendix) but a lot of it was pretty alright. i didnt agree with every opinion though.

[Rosalie Calabrese · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took 3 years to finish reading but well worth it!

[John Uzzi]

Not very well written but some interesting material if you are a Broadway fan.