From the silver screen to the Great White Way, small community theatres to television sets, the musical has long held a special place in America's heart and history. Now, in The Oxford Companion to the American Musical , readers who flocked to the movies to see An American in Paris or Chicago , lined up for tickets to West Side Story or Rent , or crowded around their TVs to watch Cinderella or High School Musical can finally turn to a single book for details about them all. For the first time, this popular subject has an engaging and authoritative book as thrilling as the performances themselves. With more than two thousand entries, this illustrated guide offers a wealth of information on musicals, performers, composers, lyricists, producers, choreographers, and much more. Biographical entries range from early stars Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Mary Martin, and Mae West to contemporary show-stoppers Nathan Lane, Savion Glover, and Kristin Chenoweth, while composers Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, and Andrew Lloyd Webber all have articles, and the choreography of Bob Fosse, Tommy Tune, and Debbie Allen receives due examination. The plays and films covered range from modern hits like Mamma Mia! and Moulin Rouge! to timeless classics such as Yankee Doodle Dandy and Show Boat . Also, numerous musicals written specifically for television appear throughout, and many entries follow a work- Babes in Toyland for example-as it moves across genres, from stage, to film, to television. The Companion also includes cross references, a comprehensive listing of recommended recordings and further reading, a useful chronology of all the musicals described in the book, plus a complete index of Tony Award and Academy Award winners. Whether you are curious about Singin' in the Rain or Spamalot , or simply adore The Wizard of Oz or Grease , this well-researched and entertaining resource is the first place to turn for reliable information on virtually every aspect of the American musical. Grade 9 Up—From The Beggar's Opera (1750) and The Black Crook (1866) to Wicked (2003) and High School Musical 2 (2007), this volume offers a clearly written, comprehensive overview of the American musical theater on the stage, silver screen, and small screen. The 2000-plus entries are brief but detailed accounts of plots; production histories; careers of actors, dancers, musicians, lyricists, composers, choreographers, and directors; organizations; and genres (animated musicals, frontier musicals). Small icons identify the title entries as stage, film, or TV shows. Cast lists in shaded text boxes include members of different productions of the same work. Other boxes list songs from many of the best-known shows and information such as "Longest-Running Off-Broadway Musicals" and "Musicals Nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award." Related biographies and autobiographies are listed at the end of the personal entries. Black-and-white captioned photographs are scattered throughout. The opening "List of Entries" helps make this a browsing delight for casual fans, while appendixes that include "Awards," "Guide to Recordings," and a bibliography of general works about musicals make it a valuable tool for researchers. This thorough work provides enjoyable reading for anyone interested in American theatrical history in general and musicals in particular.— Ginny Gustin, Sonoma County Library System, Santa Rosa, CA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Hischak, author of 16 books on theater, film, and popular music, offers an informative look at American (and some non-American) musicals as they have been presented on stage, screen, and television. In his preface, he illustrates how the American musical has evolved over the past 140 years from the “five-hour-long extravaganza,” The Black Crook, in 1866, to the popular teenybopper television event, High School Musical 2, in 2007.  Entries are well researched and written. Among the 2,000-plus entries are those for composers, performers, directors, choreographers, etc., and for individual musical works. The personal entries feature basic biographical information and chronicle the works the artists helped create in a readable narrative style. The remaining entries are for musical-theater works, with particular emphasis on those produced in more than one medium (e.g., The King and I,  Little Shop of Horrors, etc.) Informative histories of the musicals are followed by  separate entries for productions in different media, helping the reader to focus attention on the history of each, and Hischak notes the similarities and differences and highlights the advantages or pitfalls of one medium over the other. He precedes each work entry with a theater, film, or television icon for easy identification. Hischak also lists cast members for the major musicals, including the important stage, television, and film perfo