Musicals are the most popular form of theatre around. While straight plays struggle to survive on Broadway, musicals play to near capacity houses. They are also a favorite of school and community groups. In this smart and practical guide, New Line Theatre artistic director Scott Miller looks at twenty musicals from a director's point of view, with solid suggestions for anyone thinking of embarking on such a production. Includes discussions of Gypsy, Assassins, Into the Woods, My Fair Lady, and West Side Story, as well as many others. Visit Scott's company's website at newlinetheatre.com From Assassins to West Side Story is that rare theater textbook that is so articulate, insightful, and downright playful that it can be read simply for pleasure. If you're planning to direct one of these 16 shows, though, you'll have a far richer production for having employed its points. Scott Miller shows an uncommon, detailed understanding of the emotional machinery of these shows. He explores the use of the dies irae theme throughout Sweeney Todd ; points out how the title character in Pippin becomes extraordinary only when he resolves to be ordinary; proposes unceasing motion as a staging concept and a theme in Les Miserables ; suggests techniques to best let an audience grasp that time flows backward in Merrily We Roll Along ; and ponders the nature of reality and unreality at the core of Man of La Mancha . Keep those cast albums ready, because you'll definitely be putting them on. The subtitle "director's guide" is somewhat misleading and could do this fine book a significant disservice. Although it will certainly assist directors in planning productions with greater depth and impact, it should also attract a much broader audience?actors, production staff, teachers, theater enthusiasts, and the like. Director, composer, and lyricist Miller offers a creative look at 16 musical icons, including Cabaret, Into the Woods, Les Miserables, Sweeny Todd, Gypsy, Carousel, and more. The result is not just a series of plot rehashes with production credits, though. Miller truly examines each show's contribution to the theatrical experience by providing character analyses, historical commentary, approaches to production, and thoughts on interpreting symbolism, themes, and musical textures. He aims at the heart of each work and reaches it with artistic insight. Those who participate in the theater at any level as well as those with an avid interest in the subject will discover some fresh ideas here. For circulating libraries with large collections in the performing arts.?Carol J. Binkowski, Bloomfield, N.J. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. "Our highest recommendation." --Stage Directions Magazine "A must for anyone in theatre." --The Drama Book Shop Scott Miller is the founder and artistic director of New Line Theatre, an alternative musical theatre company he established in 1991 in St. Louis, at the vanguard of a new wave of nonprofit musical theatre being born across the country during the early 1990s, offering an alternative to the commercial musical theatre of New York and Broadway tours. He has been working in musical theatre since 1978 and has been directing musicals since 1981. He has written the book, music, and lyrics for nine musicals and two plays. His play Head Games has enjoyed runs in St. Louis, Los Angeles, London, and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland; and his musical, Johnny Appleweed, was nominated for four Kevin Kline Awards. He has written eight books about musical theatre, From Assassins to West Side Story; Deconstructing Harold Hill; Rebels with Applause; Let the Sun Shine In: The Genius of HAIR; Strike Up the Band: A New History of Musical Theatre; Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, and Musicals; Literally Anything Goes; and Idiots, Heathers, and Squips. He has also written chapters for several other collections of musical theatre essays, and pieces for several national theatre magazines and websites, and he has composed music for television and radio. For fifteen years, he co-hosted "Break a Leg - Theatre in St. Louis and Beyond," a weekly theatre talk show on KDHX-FM in St. Louis, and now he hosts the theatre podcast Stage Grok, available on iTunes. Miller holds a degree in music and musical theatre from Harvard University, and in 2014, the St. Louis Theater Circle awarded Miller a special award for his body of work in the musical theatre.