The Year That Made the Musical: 1924 and the Glamour of Musical Theatre

Musicologist Everett (emeritus, Univ. of Missouri, Kansas City; The Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical) serves up a generous slice of musical theater’s rich history, focusing on a singular year, 1924, in which productions of all kinds crisscrossed the Atlantic, while veteran and emerging performers alike defied genres, and operettas, zarzuelas, and musical comedies wowed both audiences and critics. The story is told chronologically, covering the background and opening of all the shows playing during that landmark year. Among the book’s cast of characters are Fred and Adele Astaire, Gertrude Lawrence, Marie Tempest, Fred Stone, Noble Sissle, and Eubie Blake, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein, and Sigmund Romberg. Everett’s thoughtful and engaging volume draws deeply from archives and special collections on two continents, and the text is enlivened with photos, posters from shows, sheet music, and magazine covers. For readers who want to go deeper, there’s a discography, a videography, and a bibliography.