Musical Theatre: A History

by John Kenrick

Acomprehensive history of stage musicals from the 1840s all the way up to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Broadway as it we know it today.>

Genres: Theatre, Music, Nonfiction, History, Musicals, Art, School

408 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2008

About the author

John Kenrick combines a passion for entertainment history with the practical know-how earned working on stage productions at every level from amateur to Broadway. This Queens native pulls back the curtain and introduces audiences and students to the fascinating people behind show business legends. Every month, his website Musicals101.com introduces thousands of visitors to the history of stage and screen musicals. His book Musical Theatre: A History is used in colleges worldwide. He has appeared on PBS, Biography, the BBC, National Public Radio and the SyFy Channel, and currently teaches at the New School University and NYU, where one of his students recently evaluated his course by writing, “He didn’t just make me laugh – he made me care.”

Reviews

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very thorough history of Broadway. The bits about Andrew Lloyd Webber were particularly entertaining, as Mr. Kenrick clearly hates him and the Cameron Mackintosh-style megamusical, and it's so nice hearing someone else who doesn't buy into the fuss over, say, Phantom of the Opera or Les Miserables. Lots of interesting stuff in the book. I particularly like reading about flops. (Rockabye Hamlet seems to be one worth looking into.)

[Guadalupe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 5 / 5

As a hardcore musical theater fan, I enjoyed every part of this book. Well explained, fast-paced, and interesting. Highly recommended for everyone interested in musical theater and its history :)

[Nicki Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, Musical Theatre--A History is a solid work. I loved the earlier chapters which chronicled the development of musical theatre from Ancient Greece through the mid-twentieth century. I loved the detail and Kendrick's obvious enthusiasm. However, I wasn't so impressed with the final chapters, which detailed musicals from 1970 to 2007. Here there were obvious incorrect facts, and Kendrick's opinion was generally scathing. On some points I agree with him: I am not keen on jukebox musicals either, and it's true that merchandising has become a huge thing. But that's how shows support themselves in the current market. I didn't welcome some of his other disparaging comments though, many of which were inaccurate or unfair. Clearly Kendrick thinks good musicals ended in the 1970s, but it makes his comments in the final chapters highly biased, whereas in previous chapters they had been balanced and interesting. As such, I am giving this four stars. It's highly informative on earlier works, if you can ignore Kendrick's vitriol against more recent productions.

[Nicole Knox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this for an online musical theatre history class online. Had to read every chapter to answer questions to assignments. Because I'm a theatre nerd, I really enjoyed this book! I think it is crucial for anyone pursuing musical theatre. Written by a longtime patron and expert/critic of Broadway, he has an index full of more of his in-depth research. Musical theatre evolved out of opera and operetta, into vaudeville, through the Golden Age, to contemporary. He highlights each 'era,' and it's cool because I know he is old enough to have witnessed the stuff from the 60s/70s to modern day Broadway. His opinionated voice is prominent throughout, which was always very blunt and sometimes sarcastic--made the book more enjoyable to read. This book is invaluable to my MT knowledge. I can even refer to it for show titles, there were so many mentioned in this book that I hadn't heard of or researched/listened to before.

[sami · Rating 1 out of 5]

A little too Eurocentric, a bit laggy at points, and a lot too white-man focused. Also a sorta joyful and informative read about the history of musical theater from Ancient Greece to 2005ish. I learned some interesting facts despite being super ticked off by the racism.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quality of information: 4 stars
Quality of snarky negative opinions dressed up as facts: 2.5 stars

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Whatever your dream, go for it. With talent, determination, and a little bit of bloomin’ luck, you might just make something impossible happen.”
Thank you John Kenrick for the inspiring words xD
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I cannot believe I just read an entire textbook. Welll, I kinda skimmed the last two thirds. But all in all, this is the first textbook I’ve read (or skimmed) in its entirety. I think I’ve come close a couple times. But I guess I finished this one because it’s shorter and I felt kinda obligated to read the whole thing because I’m supposed to.
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The content spans from ancient Greeks to the 2010’s with Hamilton. This textbook was sometimes interesting, while other times, I could care less. It’s mostly in chronological order, but some of the chapters are based on topic, a specific musical, composer, or librettist. I think I learned a lot and there was a lot of info in here.
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One thing I will mention, though, is that the author kept spelling “Hannah” two different ways…sometimes dropping the last “h” in Chapter 7 while referring to the same character. I would be the one to notice that, because people mess up my name all the time even though I thought “Hannah” was the most common spelling…but c’mon now.

[Ben Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this interesting but disappointing. Kenrick has a remarkable knowledge of what show came out when, who wrote it, who starred, how many performances, etc. But there's a real shortage of rigorous analysis. The result is that the book switches between thorough-but-dry lists and opinion without supporting evidence.

There are also a surprising number of errors. Several times I found the same person's name spelled differently in consecutive paragraphs. And then, when we got onto the last couple of decades (where I have some familiarity with some of the shows), the factual errors in the backgrounds / teams of several shows were glaring.

[Nichola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I should know better by now, I spent too much time on the earlier chapters with lots of things I couldn't connect to, and then rushed the second half which was packed with fun stuff. Much of this info is the same as another history I read, but I get a little more of a sense of the history as I accumulate books. This one would make a great reference with show titles, running performances, year debut, creative teams, plot summaries, opening named stars, significant songs, awards and responses. It did include significant stuff from London's West End and other world stages also.

[Jen Mason · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very underwhelming. Incredibly arrogant and condescending. I bought this book and read it hoping to learn more about musical theatre. The author's research is astoundingly superficial given his background. There could have a lot more research done. For example, his understanding of musicals such as 'Les Mis' is incredibly lacking as well as biased. Quite mundane viewpoints repeated over and over again. This book could have been written in just 30 pages

[Abigail Costello · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, a very thorough history of musical theatre that was also interesting! I learned a lot about classic musicals. Once you get to the 1970s, though, he became very negative. It's clear he's part of the "the old stuff was better" crowd and the "Phantom and Les Mis are trash because the masses loved them" crowd, which is a take, but everything before that was good. I especially enjoyed the chapter devoted to "My Fair Lady."

[Lizzy Fogg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for a class, as you can guess when comparing this one to every other book I’ve read recently. But it was good! It didn’t make me want to tear my eyes out, despite being informational nonfic, and I do feel more knowledgeable putting the book down than I did picking it up.

Does what it says on the tin.

[Athena · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was whatever. it was a textbook. though at least it was well written enough to be interesting.

[Kenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent and detailed history of the world that is musical theater. Highly recommend for anyone studying or interested in this world of entertainment.

[A ✨]

read chapters for my uni research project.

[Hunter Panoch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was assigned this for a class, and ended up reading the entire book for fun. An amazing summary of the industry, and packed with fun facts and stories!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative and well written, the author has a fantastic grasp of musical theatre's greats and it's 'founding fathers'. Lots in here that I didn't know!
Like an American, he is a typical hater of the British/French mega-musicals 'Les Mis' and 'Phantom of the Opera' which annoyingly happen to be my favourite musicals, but his views were surprisingly re-freshing. : )

[Bayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great! A concise history of musical theatre that gives you enough information to make you feel very well informed without inundating you. I learned lots about musical theatre and discovered many new shows because of this book. A great read!

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty comprehensive look at Musical theatre history. Definitely dry, but accomplishes its purpose.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. John knows his stuff.