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The information included the date of the opening, the theatre, and a brief (or not so brief) discussion of the plot and people involved. Length of discussion ranged from a short paragraph to more than two pages, depending on the importance of the show. Or the importance Bordman ascribed to the show. Anyone writing such a book, inevitably, is likely to be influenced by their personal preferences. Bordman's can be inferred by a glance at the table of contents. What he called Act Four, being his fourth main section of the book, was called "The Golden Age of the American Musical, 1924-1937."
Gee, that seems mighty early to me for the "Golden Age." Before Rodgers & Hammerstein, before Lerner or Loewe, before the arrival of Styne, Bernstein, Loesser, Sondheim, Bock, Kander, Coleman, Herman and more. Bordman's chapter covering 1951-1965 — the years of The King and I, My Fair Lady, The Music Man, West Side Story, Gypsy, How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, She Loves Me, Hello, Dolly! and Fiddler on the Roof — is subtitled "Lowering Standards."
Bordman went on to prepare a second edition in 1992 and a third in 2001; while the American musical theatre admittedly led a problematic existence through the past decades, one can only surmise that Bordman was happiest when writing about the musicals of the golden age. His golden age, that is, the mid-year of which was 1930. This did not negatively affect the importance of "American Musical Theatre"; it remained the only book of its kind, and an invaluable one. But it did put kind of a filter on the discussion of the modern-day American musical. For the new Fourth Edition, Bordman and his publishers have seen fit to bring in a new voice. Richard Norton, author of the three-volume "Chronology of American Musical Theater," has provided the updated material, encompassing the first ten years of the 21st century. This new decade, extending through (fittingly) The Scottsboro Boys and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, encompasses 56 pages — which is almost more than Bordman spent on the '80s and '90s combined. Norton considers the current-day musical in the same manner that Bordman considered his golden age, putting the book back on track. "American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle [Fourth Edition] by Gerald Bordman with updates by Richard Norton" [Oxford] now runs over 1,000 pages, and has something of a textbook feel to it. Happily, it seems to be crisper and cleaner than the earlier editions, easier to read and easier for browsing.
Yes, Serge turns up in numerous studies and biographies, but Dutch art scholar Sjeng Scheijen has rewritten the book on Diaghilev, if you will. "Diaghilev: A Life" by Sjeng Scheijen [Oxford] (and translated by Jane Hedley-Prole and S.J. Leinbach) recreates the world Diaghilev inhabited, in many cases presenting "new" information and revised interpretations that have the ring of truth to them. Yes, it's a fascinating story; the dramatis personae above almost guarantee that. But in Scheijen's hands, this is quite a read, quite a life, and quite a book.
(Steven Suskin is author of the recently released updated and expanded Fourth Edition of "Show Tunes" as well as "The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations," "Second Act Trouble" and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He also pens Playbill.com's On the Record and DVD Shelf columns. He can be reached at [email protected].)
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