Sing for Your Supper
The Broadway Musical in the 1930s (Golden Age of the Broadway Musical)
"In the 1930s, America was struggling in the midst of the Depression. Aficionados of the Broadway musical have always maintained that this was the decade of the serious, political show, but Ethan Mordden is here to correct the record, once and for all, and show that Broadway's lights burned brightly during the 1930s in some of the most enjoyable, fun-filled and starry vehicles that ever graced The Street. Cole Porter's Anything Goes featured that one-time stenographer from Astoria, Queens, Ethel Merman. Rodgers and Hart teamed up for On Your Toes, Babes In Arms and The Boys from Syracuse. Fred and Adele Astaire charmed first nighters in The Band Wagon. Porgy and Bess put African Americans center stage in Gershwin's operatic masterpiece. Helzapoppin tore The Majestic Theatre apart with a double helping of burlesque. Ethel Waters sent shivers down the spine in As Thousands Cheer. George M. Cohan, the quintessential Yankee Doodle Dandy, was rousing audiences nightly in I'd Rather Be Right, and Jumbo brought the circus to Broadway. Innovations in dance were pioneered by Albertina Rasch and George Balanchine. Joe Mielziner brought a bold new look to scenic design while composers like Jerome Kern and Harold Arlen filled the ear with luscious melody at a time when orchestra pits were filled to overflowing with strings, woodwinds and harp. While shows like Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock and Kurt Weil's Knickerbocker Holiday did put politics center stage, the accent on fun was heightened by some of the greatest clowns the Broadway stage has ever known - Fanny Brice, Bert Lahr, Beatrice Lillie and Mary Boland. Ethan Mordden completes his series of books on the Broadway musical and brings back a forgotten Broadway decade that was a treasure chest overflowing with theatrical riches."--Jacket.
Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.
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What the reading experience may hold
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Nonfiction
Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.
Catalog signals suggest mental-health concerns. These notes may not be complete; consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.
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Balanced tone · Steady pace
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
A good fit if…
Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.
This book's DNA
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Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc
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A quick reading snapshot
Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.
- ISBN-13
- 978-0-3122-3951-0
- Language
- English
- Edition record
- OL9327412M
A more thoughtful way into this book
This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
Begin with its place in Nonfiction, then notice where the book resists that label.
Read for connection, not completion.
Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.
Three questions to carry with you
- Whose perspective organizes the story, and whose perspective remains outside it?
- Which sources or lived experiences carry the author’s central argument?
- How does the book change the way you understand its larger subject?
Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.
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