Broadway in the Box

It was as if American television audiences discovered the musical in the early 21st century. In 2009 <em>Glee</em> took the Fox Network and American television by storm with the unexpected unification of primetime programming awkward teens and powerful voices spontaneously bursting into song. After raking in the highest rating for a new show in the 2009-2010 season <em>Glee</em> would continue to cultivate rabid fans tie-in soundtracks and merchandising and a spinoff reality competition show until its conclusion in 2015. Alongside <em>Glee</em> NBC and Fox would crank up musical visibility with the nighttime drama <em>Smash</em> and a string of live musical productions. Then came ABC's comedic fantasy musical series <em>Galavan</em>t and the CW's surprise Golden Globe darling <em>Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.</em> Television and the musical appeared to be a perfect match. <p/>But as author Kelly Kessler illustrates television had at that point been carrying on a sixty-year symbiotic love affair with the musical. From Rodgers and Hammerstein's appearance on the first Toast of the Town telecast and Mary Martin's iconic Peter Pan airings to Barbra Streisand's 1960s CBS specials The Carol Burnett Show Cop Rock Great Performances and a string of one-off musical episodes of sitcoms nighttime soaps fantasy shows and soap operas television has always embraced the musical. Kessler shows how the form is written across the history of American television and how its various incarnations tell the stories of shifting American culture and changing television film and theatrical landscapes. She recounts and explores this rich decades-long history by traversing musicals stars and sounds from film Broadway and Las Vegas to the small screen.<br>