Everything you need to know about musical theater in one handy guide by leading expert Maureen Hughes who has herself created 8 musicals and teaches musical theater. The Pocket Guide to Musicals covers everything from the composers and lyricists to a comprehensive A-Z listing of musicals from around the world. Accessibility is a key selling point with fact boxes highlighting key or curious facts about the subject.

The Pocket Guide to Musicals is compulsory reading for anyone studying musical theater and its size makes it a perfect gift for anyone intending to go to the theater at or who wants to discover as much about the topic as possible – in a handy, pocket-sized guide.

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• 1. WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF MUSICAL THEATRE
  • The Creative Tree
  • Introduction
  • A Recipe for Success
  • Poor Man’s Theatre?
  • The Trio of Grand Masters
  • Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber
  • Sir Cameron Mackintosh
  • Sir Trevor Nunn
• 2. THE HISTORY OF MUSICAL THEATRE
  • The Ancient Greeks
  • Middle Ages
  • The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
  • Johann Strauss II
  • Gilbert and Sullivan
  • William Schwenk Gilbert
  • Arthur Seymour Sullivan
  • The Works of Gilbert and Sullivan
  • The Twentieth Century
  • Musical Milestones
• 3. LOOKING FOR INFORMATION?
  • A–Z of Popular Stage Musicals
  • Chronological List of Popular Musicals
  • Categorised Section
  • Sourcing a Musical
  • A Short Synopsis of Some of the Most Popular Musicals
  • A Brief Storyline of Other Musicals
  • Matching Songs to Musicals
  • Awards
• 4. COMPOSERS AND LYRICISTS OF THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES
  • Flamboyant Foundations – Noel Coward v. Ivor Novello
  • Lionel Bart
  • Irving Berlin
  • Don Black
  • Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg
  • Jason Robert Brown
  • Cy Coleman
  • Dorothy Fields
  • George and Ira Gershwin
  • Sir Elton John
  • John Kander and Fred Ebb
  • Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe
  • Cole Porter
  • Tim Rice
  • Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II
  • Stephen Schwartz
  • Stephen Sondheim
  • Richard Stilgoe
• 5. SCREEN MUSICALS
  • Stage v. Screen
  • Which Came First, the Film Version or the Stage Version?
  • A Closer Look at a Few Film Musicals Which Inspired Later Stage Versions
  • A Brief History of the Film Musical After 1920
  • The Golden People from the Golden Age of Film Musicals
• 6. WELL I NEVER KNEW THAT!
• Sources and Bibliography
• Acknowledgements
• Permissions