Includes bibliographical references (p. 372-385) and index.

Adaptations and transformations : before 1940. American musical theatre before the twentieth century / Katherine K. Preston ; Non-English-language musical theatre in the United States / John Koegel ; Birth pangs, growing pains and sibling rivalry : musical theatre in New York, 1900-1920 / Orly Leah Krasner ; American and British operetta in the 1920s : romance, nostalgia and adventure / William A. Everett ; Images of African Americans : African-American musical theatre, Showboat, and Porgy and Bess / John Graziano ; The melody (and the words) linger on : American musical comedies of the 1920s and 1930s / Geoffrey Block -- Maturations and formulations : 1940-1970. We said we wouldn't look back : British musical theatre, 1935-1960 / John Snelson ; The coming of the musical play : Rodgers and Hammerstein / Ann Sears ; The successors of Rodgers and Hammerstein from the 1940s to the 1960s / Thomas L. Riis and Ann Sears ; Musical sophistication on Broadway : Kurt Weill and Leonard Bernstein / Bruce D. McClung and Paul R. Laird -- Evolutions and integrations : after 1970. Stephen Sondheim and the musical of the outsider / Jim Lovensheimer ; Choreographers, directors and the fully integrated musical / Paul R. Laird ; From Hair to Rent : is rock a four-letter word on Broadway? / Scott Warfield ; The megamusical : the creation, internationalisation and impact of a genre / Paul Prece and William A. Everett ; Something borrowed, something blue : the marriage of the musical and Europe / Judith Sebesta ; New horizons : the musical at the dawn of the twenty-first century / Bud Coleman -- Legacies and transformations. Why do they start to sing and dance all of a sudden? : examining the film musical / Graham Wood ; Revisiting classic musicals : revivals, film, television and recordings / Jessica Sternfeld ; The creation of a Broadway musical : Stephen Schwartz, Winnie Holzman, and Wicked / Paul R. Laird.