Approaches To The American Musical

Robert Lawson-Peebles is Senior Lecturer in the School of English and American Studies, University of Exeter. His research field is transatlantic cultural relations, from pre-Columbian times until the present. He has published three books including American environmental history: a monograph, Landscape and Written Expression in Revolutionary America (1988), and two collections of original essays co-edited with Professor Mick Gidley (now of Leeds University), Downloads of American Landscapes (1989) and Modern American Landscapes (1995). He has also published essays on, amongst others, George Washington, Susannah Rowson, James Fenimore Cooper, Henry George, and William Carlos Williams. His interests include American performance arts, and he has published an introductory essay on the subject, an article on the impact of the Second World War on Hollywood versions of English novels, and an edited collection of original essays, Approaches to the American Musical (1996). He is currently working on an account of the impact of American culture on Britain between 1900 and 1968.

• Copyright AcknowledgementsNotes on Contributors1. Introduction.  Cultural Musicology and the American Musical, Robert Lawson-Peebles2. From Butterfly to Saigon - Europe, America and "Success", Wilfrid Mellers3. There's No Business like Show Business - a Speculative Reading of the Broadway Musical, Carey Wall4. From Gold Diggers to Bar Girls - a Selective History of the American Movie Musical, Ralph Willett5. Holy Yumpin' Yiminy Scandinavian Immigrant Stereotypes in Early 20th Century American Musical, Anne-Charlotte Hanes Harvey6. Movies in Disguise - Negotiating Censorship and Patriarchy Through the Dances of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Sue Rickard7. Brush Up Your Shakespeare, Robert Lawson-Peebles8. Who Loves You Porgy? The Debates Surrounding Gershwin's Musical, David Horn9. "West Side Story" Revisited, Wilfrid Mellers10. Sondheim and the Art that has No Name, Stephen BanfieldIndex