The Oxford Handbook of The American Musical

The American musical, though one of the United States' most popular and emblematic musical genres, has long been neglected as a topic for academic study. Only recently have scholars taken up the serious study of musicals, and serious criticism and commentary available to non-professionals is still sparse.The Oxford Handbook of the Amreican Musicalis designed to be used by students in all disciplines concerned with the genre, as well as non-academic listeners who want to enrich their experience as audience members. Taking the form of a "keywords" book, it introduces readers to important concepts and terms that shape the history of the musical as a genre, and offers ways to reflect on the specific choices that shape the musicals and their performance. TheHandbookoffers ways of thinking about musicals that will be of interest to scholars and students as well as performers of all kinds.

Raymond Knapp is Professor of Musicology at UCLA. His books include Symphonic Metamorphoses: Subjectivity and Alienation in Mahler's Re-Cycled Songs (2003), The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity (2005), The American Musical and the Performance of Personal Identity (2006), and Musicological Identities: Essays in Honor of Susan McClary (2008, co-edited with Steven Baur and Jacqueline Warwick).

Mitchell Morris is Associate Professor of Musicology at UCLA; among his research interests are Russian & Soviet Music; 20th century American music; opera; gender & sexuality; psychoanalysis; problems of musical ethics; and ecocriticism. In addition to his scholarly work, he is also a frequent collaborator with the Los Angeles Opera.

Stacy Wolf is Professor in the Program in Theater and the Director of the Princeton Atelier in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University. She is the author of A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical (2002) and Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical (2011).