I've already confessed that I've never seen the Sound of Music. But it seems I'm in good company - Carrie told Alison Bonaguro that Mike hadn't either ("I guess it wasn't big in Canada")
However, by coinicidence, OUP e-mailed today about a special offer on "The Oxford Handbook Of The American Musical"
If anyone wants to bone up in advance on the background to Rodgers and Hammerstein, and the production and performance values associated with this genre, this sounds a good source. Oxford Handbooks are usually pretty authoritative. It should be widely available from worldwide book outlets. For anyone interested, this is the synopsis:
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- Chapters by major scholars and experts of the musical from several disciplines
- The only truly interdisciplinary guide to the musical
- Ideal teaching tool, offering expertise from outside the teacher's discipline
- Written in jargon-free language for all readers
- Includes a companion website
The Oxford Handbook of The American Musical offers new and cutting-edge essays on the most important and compelling issues and topics in the growing, interdisciplinary field of musical-theater and film-musical studies. Taking the form of a "keywords" book, it introduces readers to the concepts and terms that define the history of the musical as a genre and that offer ways to reflect on the specific creative choices that shape musicals and their performance on stage and screen. The handbook offers a cross-section of essays written by leading experts in the field, organized within broad conceptual groups, which together capture the breadth, direction, and tone of musicals studies today.
Each essay traces the genealogy of the term or issue it addresses, including related issues and controversies, positions and problematizes those issues within larger bodies of scholarship, and provides specific examples drawn from shows and films. Essays both re-examine traditional topics and introduce underexplored areas. Reflecting the concerns of scholars and students alike, the authors emphasize critical and accessible perspectives, and supplement theory with concrete examples that may be accessed through links to the handbook's website.
Taking into account issues of composition, performance, and reception, the book's contributors bring a wide range of practical and theoretical perspectives to bear on their considerations of one of America's most lively, enduring artistic traditions.
The Oxford Handbook of The American Musical will engage all readers interested in the form, from students to scholars to fans and aficionados, as it analyses the complex relationships among the creators, performers, and audiences who sustain the genre.
Readership: Students and scholars in musical theater studies; professional performers and aficionados of musical theater; and non-professionals who are interested in the genre."