The American musical has long provided an important vehicle through which writers, performers, and audiences reimagine who they are and how they might best interact with the world around them. Musicals are especially good at this because they provide not only an opportunity for us to enact dramatic versions of alternative identities, but also the material for performing such alternatives in the real world, through songs and the characters and attitudes those songs project.This book addresses a variety of specific themes in musicals that serve this general function: fairy tale and fantasy, idealism and inspiration, gender and sexuality, and relationships, among others. It also considers three overlapping genres that are central, in quite different ways, to the projection of personal identity: operetta, movie musicals, and operatic musicals.Among the musicals discussed are Camelot, Candide; Chicago; Company; Evita; Gypsy; Into the Woods; Kiss Me, Kate; A Little Night Music; Man of La Mancha; Meet Me in St. Louis; The Merry Widow; Moulin Rouge; My Fair Lady; Passion; The Rocky Horror Picture Show; Singin' in the Rain; Stormy Weather; Sweeney Todd; and The Wizard of Oz.Complementing the author's earlier work, The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity, this book completes a two-volume thematic history of the genre, designed for general audiences and specialists alike.

List of Figures ix Explanatory Note about Audio Examples xi Acknowledgments xiii Entr'acte 1 Part One: PERSONAL GENRES 15 Chapter 1: The Viennese Connection: Franz Lehar and American Operetta 17 The Merry Widow (1907) 20 Naughty Marietta (1910) 31 Little Mary Sunshine (1959) 40 A Little Night Music (1973) 50 Chapter 2: The Movie Musical 65 Singin' in the Rain (film, 1952) 70 Stormy Weather (film, 1943) and Bamboozled (film, 2000) 79 Meet Me in St. Louis (film, 1944) 94 Moulin Rouge (film, 2001) and Chicago (film, 2002) 102 Part Two: PERSONAL THEMES 119 Chapter 3: Fairy Tales and Fantasy 121 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (animated film, 1937) 125 The Wizard of Oz (film, 1939) 131 Mary Poppins (film, 1964) 141 Into the Woods (1987) 150 Chapter 4: Idealism and Inspiration 164 Camelot (1960) 170 Man of La Mancha (1965) 180 The Scarlet Pimpernel (1997) 189 Once More, with Feeling (television, 2001) 196 Chapter 5: Gender and Sexuality 205 Annie Get Your Gun (1946) 209 Gypsy (1959) 215 Sweet Charity (1966) 228 The Rocky Horror Picture Show (film, 1975) 240 Hedwig and the Angry Inch (1998; film, 2001) 252 Chapter 6: Relationships 264 Lady in the Dark (1941) 266 Kiss Me, Kate (1948) 273 My Fair Lady (1956) 284 Company (1970) 293 Passion (1994) 303 Epilogue 311 Chapter 7: Operatic Ambitions and Beyond 313 Candide (1956) 317 Sweeney Todd (1979) 331 Evita (1979) 342 Appendix: Additional Resources 357 Notes 377 Bibliography 433 Index 449