Rebels with Applause: Broadway's Groundbreaking Musicals

by Scott Miller

Scott Miller once again pulls back the curtain on some of the greatest, most important American musicals, taking you on a mind-blowing tour of the milestones in the history of musical theatre. These are musicals that broke all the old rules and created new ones, and changed the way we looked at musical theatre

Genres: Music, Theatre

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Scott Miller is the founder and artistic director of New Line Theatre, an alternative musical theatre company he established in 1991 in St. Louis, at the vanguard of a new wave of nonprofit musical theatre being born across the country during the early 1990s, offering an alternative to the commercial musical theatre of New York and Broadway tours. He has been working in musical theatre since 1978 and has been directing musicals since 1981. He has written the book, music, and lyrics for ten musicals and two plays. His play Head Games has enjoyed runs in St. Louis, Los Angeles, London, and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland; and his musical, Johnny Appleweed, was nominated for four Kevin Kline Awards. He has written more than a dozen books about musical theatre, including The ABCs of Broadway Musicals series. He has also written chapters for several other collections of musical theatre essays, and pieces for several national theatre magazines and websites, and he has composed music for television and radio. For fifteen years, he co-hosted "Break a Leg - Theatre in St. Louis and Beyond," a weekly theatre talk show on KDHX-FM in St. Louis, and now he hosts the theatre podcast Stage Grok, available on iTunes. Miller holds a degree in music and musical theatre from Harvard University, and in 2014, the St. Louis Theater Circle awarded Miller a special award for his body of work in the musical theatre.

Reviews

[Emily Tallman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The good parts were great; I mostly preferred the analytical sections that discussed the state of the world and musical theatre. Not a huge fan of the sections that broke down each song in the musical

[Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book covers 10 musicals that the author considers ground-breaking. While the choice of musicals is quite good (Cradle Will Rock, Pal Joey, Oklahoma!, Floyd Collins) the importance of other musicals is greatly overstated. I am not in the camp that believes Hair was a great, influential musical - I see it more as an anomaly that was surely influential but didn't exactly pave the way for similarly inclined works. Miller seems to absolutely love this musical and devotes a considerable amount of time to the disucssion of Hair. Miller also chooses to discuss musicals that I personally love but where the impact of the shows isn't particularly well discussed (Anyone Can Whistle, Jacques Brel..., Songs For A New World). The issue here is that the musicals were ground breaking but Miller doesn't make the influence of these shows explicit.
However, Miller's analysis of Rent is spot on. It's a show that was at the time incredibly different - not necessarily groundbreaking - but different. It's a flawed show that attempted to bring popular music to Broadway but didn't quite get it right. (The book was published before Spring Awakening, In The Heights and Passing Strange opened. I think all of these shows have managed to address popular music on Broadway much more effectively than Rent.)

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very enjoyable critique of several shows that changed Broadway musicals. Starting with The Cradle will Rock" and ending with "Rent" the author provides synopses of the shows in historical context. The lyrics of several songs within these musicals are explained and interpreted. Often one is too engrossed in enjoying the music when viewing the first time to realize what the writers/composers/lyricists are saying. When one thinks about them later and putting them into context one becomes more appreciative of the works.