From Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins's 1879 musical Peculiar Sam to Lynn Nottage's 2021 musical MJ, the 'Black musical' does not get the credit it deserves for sustaining the genre we know and love. This introductory book is devoted to representative African-American perspectives in musical theatre from the literature of slavery and freedom, 1746-1865, to the contemporary period, offering the reader case studies of what the 'Black musical' is, how it works, and why it matters.
Based on Glover's experience teaching Black musical theatre at a conservatory and in the liberal arts, he draws his close readings of Eubie Blake, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins and Charlie Smalls from theory and practice. Moreover, Glover investigates how the ballet, the musical comedy, the opera, the play with music and the revue are similar and different narrative sub-genres. Finally, the book reflect on issues such as blackface minstrelsy, ‘the Chitlin Circuit’, non-traditional casting and yellowface.
Published in the Topics in Musical Theatre series, this short book gives the reader new ways of seeing the aesthetically and politically capacious category of Black musical theatre from an anti-racist approach.
- ISBN10 1350247715
- ISBN13 9781350247710
- Publish Date 14 December 2023 (first published 16 November 2023)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Imprint Methuen Drama
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 136
- Language English