... Academic skills applied to entertainment American Popular Stage Music 1860-1880, by Deane L. Root (UMI Research Press, Bowker Publishing r.n f>l IT IS sometimes stated that The Black Crook was the first American musical. The truth is that it could more ...

... elements which go to make up the American musical and actually goes into some detail as to how musicals are assembled. The introduction, showing the historical development of the musical, from ballad opera via comic opera, minstrel shows, revue and burlesque ...

... ON THE MISSISSIPPI Showboats. by Philip Graham. (University of Texas Press. 25s.) This is a record of an entirely American institution, for the o'd show- boa is were first established in 1831 at Pittsburgh and ended at St. Louis, where the last of (he ...

... Bailey Bros and Swinfen, Warner House, Folk- stone, Kent CT19 6PH, £35). It is easy to laugh at the earnestness with which Americans undertake theatre research, but I would hazard a guess that no one in this country would, or would even see the need of ...

... are a few omissions among the American vaudeville and burlesque terms, such as schtick (a piece of business for which a per former is known), top banana (principal comedian in a burlesque show) and end man (as in minstrel show). Or even walloper, as applied ...

... dancing to create an astonishingly vibrant mix. The mis sionaries adapted African forms to sacred music, American influences gave rise to minstrel troupes and jazz bands, a black show business industry grew up with its own stars, and the townships, at ...

... alternative. A New Faces winner who went from clubs to theatres the only genuine black performer in The Black and White Minstrels and then did a startling volte face into college gigs after achieving television fame, he is definitely one of a kind. Yet ...

... times a week and annoyed the judge when the detectives and clerks in court all bought his novelties. There are Wandering Minstrels, too, with not only W. S. Gilbert's Nanki Poo but Richard Stoker's piece about today's singer of songs, the Pop Star whose ...

... out the United States and what we now know as the musical evolved from the minstrels through vaude ville, revue, burlesque, comic opera and operetta into a distinc tively American art form. In the nineties, as Kislan analyses what it takes to make a musical ...

... restaurants which have a theatri cal connection, and as such is of particular interest to visitors from overseas, especially Americans. The first part concentrates on London, but halfway through she switches to overseas, with chap ters about Broadway, Somerset ...