DIRECTORS AND THE NEW MUSICAL DRAMA: BRITISH AND AMERICAN MUSICAL THEATRE IN THE 1980s AND '90s

DIRECTORS AND THE NEW MUSICAL DRAMA: BRITISH AND AMERICAN MUSICAL THEATRE IN THE 1980s AND '90s. By Miranda Lundskaer-Nielsen. Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History Series. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008; pp. x + 231. $80.00 cloth.

Directors and the New Musical Drama addresses the evolution of musical theatre in the 1980s and 1990s by examining the cultural differences between British and American musicals and the role of the director. Through these two critical lenses, Lundskaer-Nielsen argues that certain musicals in the late twentieth century changed the very definition of the form, making it more inclusive and exploratory. To support this argument, she examines commercially successful productions of the "British Invasion" from London's West End, recent inventive Broadway revivals, and the rise of the American nonprofit theatre.

The first chapter provides a brief history of both American and British musical theatre, leading to the cultural and artistic tensions that emerged when West End imports dominated the Broadway landscape during the 1980s and 1990s. Lundskaer-Nielsen also develops her definition of "musical drama": a hybrid form of musical theatre combining the essential traditions of Golden Age Broadway musicals (e.g., using song to further the story or investigate an idea) with staging styles and dramaturgy from nonmusical drama. She offers Les Misérables and Miss Saigon as foundational examples of this new...