{"product_id":"9781350107090","title":"The Theatre of Kander and Ebb","description":"Author: Gordon, Robert\u003cbr\u003eISBN: 9781350107090\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Bloomsbury\u003cbr\u003eYear first published: 21 Oct 2025\u003cbr\u003ePages: 312 Format: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDiscover John Kander and Fred Ebb, the most artistically and commercially successful musical theatre writing team since Rodgers and Hammerstein, in a brand new way.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIdentifying the theatrical approach that renders their musical dramaturgy unique, this book explores their importance within, and contribution to, musical theatre history. Through their biggest hits, \u003ci\u003eCabaret \u003c\/i\u003e(1966) and \u003ci\u003eChicago\u003c\/i\u003e (1975), Kander and Ebb have been performed on the stage more times both within and outside of the USA than any other American musical theatre writers. Unlike Sondheim, whose work from 1964 increasingly aspired towards the avant-garde, Kander and Ebb located their projects in a nexus between art and commercial entertainment, seeking to deconstruct popular forms in order to expose their ideological function.\u003cbr\u003eThis book investigates the full range of Kander and Ebb's collaboration from the pure comic entertainment of \u003ci\u003e70, Girls, 70\u003c\/i\u003e (1971) and \u003ci\u003eCurtains \u003c\/i\u003e(2006) to more overtly serious musicals such as\u003ci\u003e Kiss of the Spiderwoman\u003c\/i\u003e (1992), \u003ci\u003eThe Scottsboro Boy\u003c\/i\u003es (2010) and \u003ci\u003eThe Visit\u003c\/i\u003e (2014), which were less commercially successful precisely because they addressed disturbing subjects. It explores how the difficult material inspired beautiful, though challenging, scores. It also probes how the ironic counterpointing of luscious music with witty and demotic lyrics challenges the desire of a Broadway audience for escapist entertainment, devoid of critical self-reflection, in order to create complex, yet popular, masterpieces of the genre.\u003cbr\u003eThis is the first volume to explicitly analyse the recurrent theatrical tropes and dramaturgical forms in Kander and Ebb's musicals, offering an in-depth introduction to their oeuvre.","brand":"Ships in 10 to 15 days","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46643218874526,"sku":"UBD-9781350107090","price":44.78,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0400\/9043\/5742\/files\/9781350107090.jpg?v=1774484402","url":"https:\/\/classicbargains.com.au\/products\/9781350107090","provider":"Classic Bargains Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}