Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, and Musicals

Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, and Musicals

by Scott Miller
Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, and Musicals

Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, and Musicals

by Scott Miller

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Overview

Eager to respond to the concerns and tastes of the increasingly influential baby-boomer generation, musical theater in the late 1960s began to embrace formerly taboo subjects—including the triumvirate of postwar social change: sex, drugs, and rock & roll. Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, and Musicals shows how American culture has changed over the twentieth century, from the Roaring Twenties (The Wild Party) to the cultural chaos of the ’50s (Grease) and the sexual revolution of the ’60s (Hair) and ’70s (Rocky Horror), to the rebirth of the art form in the ’90s (Bat Boy), and up to the present, exploring where we’ve been and where we might be heading. This is a celebration of the counter-culture taking center stage in the most American of performing arts, and changing it forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781555537616
Publisher: Northeastern University Press
Publication date: 01/01/2012
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 288
File size: 575 KB

About the Author

About The Author
SCOTT MILLER is the founder and artistic director of New Line Theatre, an alternative musical theater company in St. Louis, Missouri, and he has been writing, performing in, and directing musicals since 1981. He has written a number of books on musical theater, including Strike Up the Band, Let the Sun Shine In, Rebels with Applause, Deconstructing Harold Hill, and From Assassins to West Side Story.

Table of Contents

Overture
The Wild Party
Grease
Hair
Jesus Christ Superstar
The Rocky Horror Show
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
I Love My Wife
Bat Boy
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
High Fidelity
The Rock Musical: Now and Forever

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Scott Miller is a theater sage. His thorough dissection of the genre and the shows he has chosen to represent it are great research opportunities for fledgling directors and actors alike who may be looking to build their backstories and character definition. Better yet, to fully understand what exactly it is they're working on besides just a well crafted script and some great songs passed down from artist to artist. The more recreating performers and production teams have Scott's level of understanding about where the original creative team came from, the stronger even the smallest theater company will become at making something new out of what's been done before. Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, and Musicals is a valuable addition to the world library of theater history & analysis."—Doug Storm, original cast member of Bat Boy: The Musical

"Finally, someone who believes the American musical is not only alive and well but is growing and thriving in ways other observers may have missed. Scott Miller embraces the here and now of the art form and cries out 'Hooray!'—or a more appropriate and less printable rock and roll interjection. Well, f_ _ _ yeah for Scott Miller!"—Andrew Lippa

"There are those who say that today's musicals are just thrown together with little thought behind them. Scott Miller proves otherwise in this extraordinary book. He's been able to glean the meaning, subtext, skill and genuine intelligence that many others have missed. Miller will have you aching to see new productions of these works, and will send you back to the original cast albums so that you can now appreciate what you missed the first time around."—Peter Filichia, Newark Star-Ledger, Theatermania.com

Doug Storm

“Scott Miller is a theater sage. His thorough dissection of the genre and the shows he has chosen to represent it are great research opportunities for fledgling directors and actors alike who may be looking to build their backstories and character definition. Better yet, to fully understand what exactly it is they’re working on besides just a well crafted script and some great songs passed down from artist to artist. The more recreating performers and production teams have Scott’s level of understanding about where the original creative team came from, the stronger even the smallest theater company will become at making something new out of what’s been done before. Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, and Musicals is a valuable addition to the world library of theater history & analysis.”

Andrew Lippa

“Finally, someone who believes the American musical is not only alive and well but is growing and thriving in ways other observers may have missed. Scott Miller embraces the here and now of the art form and cries out ‘Hooray!’—or a more appropriate and less printable rock and roll interjection. Well, f_ _ _ yeah for Scott Miller!”

Peter Filichia

“There are those who say that today’s musicals are just thrown together with little thought behind them. Scott Miller proves otherwise in this extraordinary book. He’s been able to glean the meaning, subtext, skill and genuine intelligence that many others have missed. Miller will have you aching to see new productions of these works, and will send you back to the original cast albums so that you can now appreciate what you missed the first time around.”

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