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History of the Broadway Musical #2
Sing for Your Supper: The Broadway Musical in the 1930s
In the 1930s, Broadway's lights still burned brightly. Ethan Mordden completes his history of the Broadway musical by taking a look at this forgotten era. Shows like Anything Goes brought the glitter of Cole Porter and Merman's brass to the public. Innovations in dance were pioneered by Balanchine and others. Scenic advancements made Astaire's The Band Wagon move across the stage in novel ways. Gershwin's revolutionary Porgy and Bess entered the canon of American Classics. And The Cradle Will Rock and Johnny Johnson took the American political temperature. With his trademark wit and style, Ethan Mordden shines the spotlight on Broadway's forgotten decade.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 3, 2018
The 1930's are the decade when the Broadway musical really came into its own. Such trite conventions as the Mammy song, the static chorus line and the antique operetta went into decline. Instead, hard times forced a more sophisticated type of show -- not always, but enough to be significant.
We hadn't yet reached the era of the "integrated book" (usually attributed to OKLAHOMA! in the 1940s), but "Tin Pan Alley" gave us wonderful shows like "Girl Crazy," "Porgy and Bess," "Roberta," "Anything Goes" and "Knickerbocker Holiday." Such Broadway musicals produced wonderful hits like "Night and Day, "Summertime," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," "Where or When," and "September Song," foreshadowing the coming era when Broadway tunes and popular songs swung arm-in-arm through American culture.
Cultural historian and Broadway maven Ethan Mordden is at his best in this type of history, with tight, opinionated prose and layers of detail that make this trek through the Depression years a real treat. He considers the times, the economics, the tug between creativity and tradition, the creative challenge in writing and mounting major productions, and above all the sheer enjoyment these shows provided -- and still do. Highly recommended.
Updated September 2, 2018
We hadn't yet reached the era of the "integrated book" (usually attributed to OKLAHOMA! in the 1940s), but "Tin Pan Alley" gave us wonderful shows like "Girl Crazy," "Porgy and Bess," "Roberta," "Anything Goes" and "Knickerbocker Holiday." Such Broadway musicals produced wonderful hits like "Night and Day, "Summertime," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," "Where or When," and "September Song," foreshadowing the coming era when Broadway tunes and popular songs swung arm-in-arm through American culture.
Cultural historian and Broadway maven Ethan Mordden is at his best in this type of history, with tight, opinionated prose and layers of detail that make this trek through the Depression years a real treat. He considers the times, the economics, the tug between creativity and tradition, the creative challenge in writing and mounting major productions, and above all the sheer enjoyment these shows provided -- and still do. Highly recommended.
Updated September 2, 2018
September 7, 2017
This is an entertaining vol. 2 in a series about the development of the Broadway musical. The first was Make Believe-The Broadway Musical in the 1920's and this volume follows the composers, the directors, the writers, and stars of 1930's working to move the musical forward. Their are the back stories of the big hits, flops, the rise and decline of composers, the evolution of the book musical, and the love of the early American pop music.
October 3, 2020
Covers a lot, but not in depth
This is a terrific but extremely superficial survey of ‘30s Broadway musicals. Mordden is quite knowledgeable and his series on Bway musical theatre history is valuable as a resource. However, throughout, he uses technical music terminology that, to this reader, mean nothing. In many cases, the scores are all that is tangibly left of these shows, so I understand that impulse, and maybe he is backed into using the terminology because of that. All in all, worth a read if you’re interested in the subject, but don’t expect to come away with the depth of knowledge that you’d get from a more focused book.
This is a terrific but extremely superficial survey of ‘30s Broadway musicals. Mordden is quite knowledgeable and his series on Bway musical theatre history is valuable as a resource. However, throughout, he uses technical music terminology that, to this reader, mean nothing. In many cases, the scores are all that is tangibly left of these shows, so I understand that impulse, and maybe he is backed into using the terminology because of that. All in all, worth a read if you’re interested in the subject, but don’t expect to come away with the depth of knowledge that you’d get from a more focused book.
October 9, 2020
Morrden has a few things he wants you to know about the musicals of the 1930s: 1) they aren’t as radically leftist as you think, 2) unless it’s Porgy and Bess they aren’t artistically innovative, and 3) Cole Porter’s score for Jubilee (1935) is pretty decent.
And that’s the book, pretty much.
Mordden wrote this one last, even as its pretty early in the chronology of his decade-a-book series, which began with the 1920s and runs through the 1970s. His project throughout is charting artistic innovation in American musical theater, and so his disinterest in the shows of this decade is clear: when we’re talking innovation, there isn’t much between Show Boat and Oklahoma. As always, there is tremendous value in his excavation of “lost” shows, and more so in this volume - few of these shows live on in revival, recordings, or otherwise, so Mordden’s research and detailed “recreations” of these stagings and scores is something of a treasure trove.
But the overwhelming feeling Mordden shares with us is a feeling of being... unimpressed. Some of these shows tried interesting things in their storytelling, sure; some married music and story, at moments, in ways that wouldn’t become best practices for another decade or more; but to Mordden the decade is mostly made up of silly shows meant for entertainment, not for art, and those - he seems to suggest - aren’t worth his critical attention. It’s in making arguments like this that Mordden displays the curmudgeonly streak which I find simultaneously compelling and repellant. It reads badly to me. But as with his other books, it’s fascinating to argue with.
And that’s the book, pretty much.
Mordden wrote this one last, even as its pretty early in the chronology of his decade-a-book series, which began with the 1920s and runs through the 1970s. His project throughout is charting artistic innovation in American musical theater, and so his disinterest in the shows of this decade is clear: when we’re talking innovation, there isn’t much between Show Boat and Oklahoma. As always, there is tremendous value in his excavation of “lost” shows, and more so in this volume - few of these shows live on in revival, recordings, or otherwise, so Mordden’s research and detailed “recreations” of these stagings and scores is something of a treasure trove.
But the overwhelming feeling Mordden shares with us is a feeling of being... unimpressed. Some of these shows tried interesting things in their storytelling, sure; some married music and story, at moments, in ways that wouldn’t become best practices for another decade or more; but to Mordden the decade is mostly made up of silly shows meant for entertainment, not for art, and those - he seems to suggest - aren’t worth his critical attention. It’s in making arguments like this that Mordden displays the curmudgeonly streak which I find simultaneously compelling and repellant. It reads badly to me. But as with his other books, it’s fascinating to argue with.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews