This special bundle contains seven books that detail Canada’s long and storied history in the performing arts. We learn about Canada’s early Hollywood celebrity movie stars; Canadians’ vast contributions to successful international stage musicals; the story of The Grand, a famous theatre in London, Ontario; reminiscences from the early days of radio; the history of the renowned Stratford Festival; and a lavish history of the famous National Ballet of Canada. Canada’s performing artists blo...

Did you know that the idea behind the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes was first tried out in Toronto? That Canada produced the world’s longest-running annual revue? Few people realize the Canadian influences that are at the heart of American and British culture.Author Mel Atkey’s research for Broadway North included interviews with Norman and Elaine Campbell and Don Harron, creators of Anne of Green Gables-The Musical; Mavor Moore, founder of the Charlottetown Festival and of Sprin...

When We Both Got to Heaven places James Atkey (1805-1868) on the shores of Georgian Bay at the time of treaty negotiations between the First Nations people of the Saugeen, Nawash and Colpoy’s Bay areas, and the Colonial government. A Methodist lay preacher, Atkey leaves the Isle of Wight and arrives at Colpoy’s Bay with his family in 1855. There he takes up the position of teacher for the Anishnaube children of the area.The great-great-great-grandson of James Atkey, author...

The "essential and hilarious" book that highlights almost 200 musicals and examines how they became Broadway's biggest fails ( The New Yorker ).Ken Mandelbaum offers the behind-the-scenes story of the development of almost two hundred musical flops that played Broadway between 1950 and 1990, along with a reevaluative and often revisionist study of their quality.Here they all are, from such legendary catastrophes as...

Ethan Mordden has been hailed as "a sharp-eared listener and a discerning critic," by Opera News, which compares his books to "dinner with a knowledgeable, garrulous companion." The "preeminent historian of the American musical" (New York Times), he "brings boundless energy and enthusiasm buttressed by an arsenal of smart anecdotes" (Wall Street Journal). Now Mordden offers an entirely fresh and infectiously delightful history of American musical theatre. Any...

This book contains 250 anecdotes, including these: 1) As a young man, choreographer George Balanchine nearly died and so he believed in living his life each day and not holding anything back. He would tell his dancers, "Why are you stingy with yourselves? Why are you holding back? What are you saving for—for another time? There are no other times. There is only now. Right now." Throughout his career, including before he became world renowned, he worked with what he had, not complaining abo...

A delightfully engaging, accessible pocket guide to one hundred greatest musicals - and ten terrible ones.'James Inverne proves once and for all that size isn't everything. In his small book he has packed an enormous amount of fascinating detail, not only about great musicals but excruciating ones as well. I was so hooked I read it all in one sitting' Don Black'Smart and witty' Independent'Delightfully surp...

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 studyin...

Although the venue Off Broadway has long been the birthplace of innovative and popular musicals, there have been few studies of these influential works. Long-running champs, such as The Fantasticks and Little Shop of Horrors, are discussed in many books about American musicals, but what of the hundreds of other Off-Broadway musicals?In Off-Broadway Musicals since 1919, Thomas Hischak looks at more than 375 musicals, which are described, discussed, and ana...

The conventional opinion is that professional Canadian theatre began in 1953 with the founding of the Stratford Festival. But Susan McNicoll asks how this could be, when the majority of those taking the stage at Stratford were professional Canadian actors. To answer this question, McNicoll delves into the period to show how in fact the unbroken chain of Canadian professional theatre began just after WWII, when a host of theatre people decided that Canada needed its own professional theatre...

The Canadian theatre has seen an extraordinary growth in writing talent and new professional companies in the last two decades. This is the first book accurately to chart its expansion and development from the beginnings to the present day. With some 680 entries including biographies of actors, playwrights, directors, and designers and details of major plays, and such diverse subjects as theatres and companies, collective theatre, ethnic theatre, musical theatre, and radio and television dram...

Tracing the development of the musical on both Broadway and in London's West End, this updated Companion continues to provide a broad and thorough overview of one of the liveliest and most popular forms of musical performance. Ordered chronologically, essays cover from the American musical of the nineteenth century through to the most recent productions, and the book also includes key information on singers, audience, critical reception, and traditions. All of the chapters from the first e...