Directors and the New Musical Drama: British and American Musical Theatre in the 1980s and 90s [Paperback]

This is one of the first books to offer a rigorous analysis of the enormous changes in the musical theatre during the 1980s and 90s.? In addition, it focuses on the contribution of well-known, serious theatre directors to the mainstream Musical Theatre and it is the first book to offer a dual Anglo-American perspective on this subject.Challenge from Within: Harold Prince in Context * The Prince Legacy: Musical Drama on Broadway * Cultural Barricades: British Musicals in the Eighties and Nineties *?Beyond the Logos: West End Musical Drama * New Horizons: Musical Drama in the Non-Profit Theatre *?Expanding Boundaries: Non-profit Directors in the Nineties * British Directors and the Classic American Musicals * Afterlife: Reinterpreting the Canon

Lundskaer-Nielsen has provided a lucid, informed, and (thankfully) non-partisan look at the British Invasion , which will do much to provide a new and much-desired context to this phenomenon. Her examination of the roots of the megamusical and its tremendous effect on both sides of the Atlantic will be fascinating to anyone interested in popular culture, the craft of the director, Anglo-American relations - let alone, of course, the commercial and artistic vagaries of the musical theater. - Laurence Maslon, Associate Arts Professor, New York University, co-author (with Michael Kantor) of Broadway: The American Musical, and author of The Sound of Music Companion

I was impressed with the scope of Lundskaer-Nielsen's study, the range and depth of her knowledge about theatre and musical theatre, and the connections she is able to make among disparate works and influences. Her premise that the directors of 'musical dramas' have been relatively ignored, while the choreographer-directors have been accorded a central place in the historical narrative of musical theatre is sound and meticulously developed. Her analyses are cogent, her conclusions perceptive and valid. - Barbara Wallace Grossman, Chair, DepalÃ#