Yearly Archives: 2017

23 posts

American Musical Theater

American Musical Theater. James Leve. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015; Pp. 448. American Musical Theater by James Leve provides instructors and students with an interdisciplinary approach to the history of the musical from Reconstruction to the contemporary period. From burlesque, the minstrel show, operetta, and vaudeville to the musicals […]

May Irwin

May Irwin: Singing, Shouting, and the Shadow of Minstrelsy. Sharon Ammen. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2017; Pp. 296. In 1981, popular culture scholar Anthony Slide wrote, “if May Irwin is remembered at all…it is as a plump, somewhat unattractive actress, bestowing an amorous kiss in a flickering film […]

Chinese Looks

Chinese Looks: Fashion, Performance, Race. Sean Metzger. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2014; Pp. 300. The 2015 theme for the Metropolitan Museum Costume Institute exhibition and gala in New York was supposed to be “Chinese Whispers: Tales of the East in Art, Film, and Fashion.” Curator Andrew Bolton explained […]

Musical Theatre Books

Actor-Musicianship. Jeremy Harrison. London, New York: Bloomsbury, 2016; Pp. 220. The Complete Book of 1940s Broadway Musicals. Dan Dietz. London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015; Pp. 591. Musical Theatre Song. Stephen Purdy. London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2016; Pp. 284. A relative newcomer to theatre studies, musical theatre scholarship has proven […]

Books Received

If you would like to write a review for JADT, please contact our current book review editor Donatella Galella at galella@ucr.edu. If you know of a book that would be suitable for review in JADT, please mail a copy to the Editors, JADT/Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, CUNY Graduate Center, […]

On Bow and Exit Music

by Derek Miller The Journal of American Drama and Theatre Volume 30, Number 1 (Fall 2017) ISNN 2376-4236 ©2017 by Martin E. Segal Theatre Center To begin at the end: actors land in a tableau; lights fade; curtain falls. In the American musical theatre, a final chord sounds in the orchestra. […]

Spring 2018 Special Issue

The American Theatre and Drama Society invites submissions for the Spring 2018 issue of The Journal of American Drama and Theatre Mediations of Authorship in American Postdramatic Mediaturgies Submission Deadline: 15 Dec. 2017 Authorship has proven to be an elastic concept determined by varying degrees of interference with media and technologies, […]

Acting in the Academy

Acting in the Academy: The history of professional actor training in US higher education. Peter Zazzali. London, New York: Routledge, 2016; Pp. 219. In Acting in the Academy, Peter Zazzali marshals some rather grim employment data provided by Actors Equity Association to argue that it is now harder than ever […]

Directing Shakespeare in America

Directing Shakespeare in America: Current Practices. By Charles Ney. London UK, New York NY: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2016. Pp. 362. Charles Ney’s Directing Shakespeare in America: Current Practices is an illuminating and much-needed resource for directors, scholars, students, and Shakespeare aficionados. Between 2004 and 2015, Ney interviewed a veritable “who’s […]

Ruth Maleczech at Mabou Mines

Ruth Maleczech at Mabou Mines: Woman’s Work. By Jessica Silsby Brater. Methuen Drama Engage Series. Series editors Enoch Brater and Mark Taylor-Batty. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama Press, 2016; Pp. 255. The Methuen Drama Engage Series “offers original reflections about key practitioners, movements and genres in the fields of modern theatre […]