When the first edition of this book appeared, at the beginning of the 1980s, the age of the Hollywood musical seemed to be over. Fred and Ginger had long since hung up their dancing shoes, and audiences had lost their taste for the great MGM extravaganzas. But since then the musical has undergone a rebirth, with the rise of teen musicals such as Dirty Dancing and Flashdance. In a chapter specially written for this new edition of her book, Jane Feuer shows how this new development in the genre relates to important changes in the cinema audience itself.
