cover image 150 Years of Popular Musical Theatre

150 Years of Popular Musical Theatre

Andrew Lamb. Yale University Press, $55 (400pp) ISBN 978-0-300-07538-0

Both informed and engaging, 150 Years of Popular Musical Theatre by British musicologist Andrew Lamb traces the development of modern musical theater from its beginnings in Paris roughly a century and a half ago to productions seen today on Broadway, in New York's East Village and the West End of London. Lamb contends that the dawn of the Industrial Revolution brought an increase in the uneducated working population to urban centers where the demand for ""less sophisticated, more accessible theatrical entertainment"" gave rise to the operetta, particularly as created by Jacques Offenbach. From there, Lamb proceeds across Europe to America, where he follows musical theater through various countries and composers, concluding with Jonathan Larson's rock opera Rent. 35 b&w illus.