A New York Times Bestseller
For almost a century, Americans have been losing their hearts and losing
their minds in an insatiable love affair with the American musical. It
often begins in childhood in a darkened theater, grows into something
more serious for high school actors, and reaches its passionate zenith
when it comes time for love, marriage, and children, who will start the
cycle all over again. Americans love musicals. Americans invented
musicals. Americans perfected musicals. But what, exactly, is a musical?
In The Secret Life of the American Musical, Jack Viertel takes them
apart, puts them back together, sings their praises, marvels at their
unflagging inventiveness, and occasionally despairs over their more
embarrassing shortcomings. In the process, he invites us to fall in love
all over again by showing us how musicals happen, what makes them work,
how they captivate audiences, and how one landmark show leads to the
next--by design or by accident, by emulation or by rebellion--from
Oklahoma! to Hamilton and onward.
Structured like a musical, The Secret Life of the American Musical
begins with an overture and concludes with a curtain call, with stops in
between for "I Want" songs, "conditional" love songs, production
numbers, star turns, and finales. The ultimate insider, Viertel has
spent three decades on Broadway, working on dozens of shows old and new
as a conceiver, producer, dramaturg, and general creative force; he has
his own unique way of looking at the process and at the people who
collaborate to make musicals a reality. He shows us patterns in the
architecture of classic shows and charts the inevitable evolution that
has taken place in musical theater as America itself has evolved
socially and politically.
The Secret Life of the American Musical makes you feel as though
you've been there in the rehearsal room, in the front row of the
theater, and in the working offices of theater owners and producers as
they pursue their own love affair with that rare and elusive beast--the
Broadway hit.
