{"product_id":"stephen-sondheim-and-the-reinvention-of-the-american-musical-paperback","title":"Stephen Sondheim and the Reinvention of the American Musical - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eRobert L. McLaughlin\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e From \u003cem\u003eWest Side Story\u003c\/em\u003e in 1957 to \u003cem\u003eRoad Show\u003c\/em\u003e in 2008, the musicals of Stephen Sondheim and his collaborators have challenged the conventions of American musical theater and expanded the possibilities of what musical plays can do, how they work, and what they mean. Sondheim's brilliant array of work, including such musicals as \u003cem\u003eCompany\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eFollies\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eSweeney Todd\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eSunday in the Park with George\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eInto the Woods\u003c\/em\u003e, has established him as the preeminent composer\/lyricist of his, if not all, time.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cem\u003eStephen Sondheim and the Reinvention of the American Musical\u003c\/em\u003e places Sondheim's work in two contexts: the exhaustion of the musical play and the postmodernism that, by the 1960s, deeply influenced all the American arts. Sondheim's musicals are central to the transition from the Rodgers and Hammerstein-style musical that had dominated Broadway stages for twenty years to a new postmodern musical. This new style reclaimed many of the self-aware, performative techniques of the 1930s musical comedy to develop its themes of the breakdown of narrative knowledge and the fragmentation of identity. In his most recent work, Sondheim, who was famously mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II, stretches toward a twenty-first-century musical that seeks to break out of the self-referring web of language.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cem\u003eStephen Sondheim and the Reinvention of the American Musical\u003c\/em\u003e offers close readings of all of Sondheim's musicals and finds in them critiques of the operation of power, questioning of conventional systems of knowledge, and explorations of contemporary identity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eRobert L. McLaughlin\u003c\/b\u003e is professor of English at Illinois State University. With Sally E. Parry, he is author of \u003ci\u003eWe'll Always Have the Movies: American Cinema during World War II\u003c\/i\u003e and editor of \u003ci\u003eInnovations: An Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 322\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.71 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e March 09, 2018\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51805550575904,"sku":"9781496818324","price":63.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/7ca04bb5200edba242e7818f7bcc4a8d.webp?v=1780911126","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/stephen-sondheim-and-the-reinvention-of-the-american-musical-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}