Creating America on Stage

Musical theater has long suffered the reputation ofbeing unrealistic and unsophisticated with no real social significance.Howevermusical theater has been an integral part of Americanculture since the early Twentieth Century. Specifically it wasJewish composers and lyricists who created and defined America onstage. These writers were immigrants themselves came fromimmigrant families or grew up as second-generation Jews in a landtroubled by anti-Semitism; still they were the ones who consideredAmerica a worthwhile topic for the stage. This book defines theunique attributes of Jewish music and lyrics focusing onthe major works of Irving Berlin Jerome Kern George and IraGershwin Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Embeddingcondemnations of America's social weaknesses into natural images ofthe landscape they created a revolutionary depiction of America forthe musical stage. Especially useful for scholars of AmericanStudies Jewish Studies Drama Music and Popular Culture and forBroadway aficionados this book illustrates how what wasinitially considered mere casual entertainment actually became arenaissance in American theater.