Our Musicals, Ourselves

A retired professor of theater arts from Brandeis University serves up the first social history of American musical theater, covering the broad sweep of plays, from "Showboat" to "Urinetown," discussing the impact of this brand of theater on culture and society. (Performing Arts)

John Bush Jones is a retired Professor of Theater Arts at Brandeis University. He has written theater criticism for numerous journals and newspapers, including the Boston Phoenix, the Kansas City Star, the Boston Herald, and the New England Theater Journal. He has directed dozens of musicals in professional, community, and university theaters

Foreword by Sheldon Harnick

ix

Acknowledgments

xi

Introduction

1

(11)

1. Patriotism, Xenophobia, and World War I

12

(40)

2. The Musicals of the Roaring Twenties

52

(27)

3. Coping with Depression

79

(44)

4. World War II and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Years

123

(38)

5. From Isolationism to Idealism in the Cold War Years

161

(41)

6. Black and Jewish Musicals since the 1960's

202

(33)

7. Issue-Driven Musicals of the Turbulent Years

235

(34)

8. Fragmented Society, Fragmented Musicals

269

(36)

9. "A Recycled Culture," Nostalgia, and Spectacle

305

(26)

l0. New Voices, New Perspectives

331

(29)

APPENDIXES

Appendix A. Broadway Musical Production, 1919-1929

360

(2)

Appendix B. Long-Running Diversionary Musicals, 1929-1938

362

(2)

Appendix C. Long-Running Diversionary Musicals, 1939-1945

364

(2)

Appendix D. Long-Running Diversionary Musicals, 1946-1960

366

(3)

Appendix E. Long-Running Diversionary Musicals, 1960-1969

369

(2)

Appendix F. Long-Running Diversionary Musicals, 1969-1979

371

(1)

Appendix G. Long-Running Diversionary Musicals, 1979-2000

372

(3)

Sources Cited

375

(16)

Index

391

(1)

Index

391

0201782634

Preface

11

(2)

Read Me First

There are no little things

One

13

(2)

One space between sentences

Spacing after punctuation; monospaced versus proportional type

Two

15

(4)

Quotation marks

Using real quotation marks; avoid this foolish mistake; punctuation with quotation marks

Three

19

(2)

Apostrophes

Using real apostrophes; where to place the apostrophe

Four

21

(4)

Dashes

Using hyphens, en, and em dashes; where to use dashes

Five

25

(4)

Special characters

Using Key Caps to access special characters

Six

29

(2)

Accent marks

Placing accent marks over letters; chart of the most common accent marks

Seven

31

(2)

Underlining

Never underline; alternatives to underlining

Eight

33

(2)

Capitals

Avoiding all caps; a little puzzle

Nine

35

(2)

Kerning

Adjusting the space between letters

Ten

37

(8)

Tabs and indents

Using first line indents; tabs; numbering paragraphs

Eleven

45

(2)

Widows and orphans

Recognizing and avoiding them

Twelve

47

(4)

Hyphenations and line breaks

Avoiding hyphenations; sensitive line breaks

Thirteen

51

(4)

Leading, or linespace

Understanding leading; keeping the linespacing consistent; adjusting the linespacing of all caps

Fourteen

55

(4)

Paragraph spacing

Use space or an indent, not both; adjusting the space between paragraphs; don't indent first paragraphs

Fifteen

59

(2)

Justified text

Optimum line length for justified text; rivets

Sixteen

61

(2)

Hanging the punctuation

Eliminating visual interruptions of the aligned edge of text; non-breaking spaces em, en, and thin spaces

Seventeen

63

(2)

Serif and sans serif fonts

Readability, legibility; adjusting sans serif for better readability

Eighteen

65

(4)

Combining typefaces

Using contrast to combine typefaces

Nineteen

69

(2)

Numerals in odd places

Fractions; superscript and subscript; numbers in a list

Twenty

71

(5)

Miscellaneous

Using italic and bold; typing A.M. and P.m.; aligning baselines; allowing white space; crowding text in a box; typing numbers; being consistent; listings with bullets; abbreviating; reducing point size of punctuation; italic type

Twenty-one

76

(2)

On the web

Typographic principles on the web: what's different and what's not

Twenty-two

78

(3)

Quiz: Make this prose look more professional

Appendix A

81

(2)

Compendium of rules-a checklist

Appendix B

83

(3)

List of most commonly used special characters and accent marks; chart of every accent mark available and how to type them

Index

86

(2)

Colophon

88

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Our Musicals, Ourselves

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials