Book American Musical Theater: A Chronicle (Gerald Bordman)

Bordman's exhaustive chronology traces the musical from its origins through the 1989-90 season, providing a delightful mix of history, criticism, and theatrical lore. This second edition revises and updates the first ( LJ 10/1/78) and expanded (Oxford Univ. Pr., 1986) editions, most notably in its appendix which covers early popular musical shows and farce-comedies that were not part of mainstream Broadway. Bordman is one of our best critical historians of musical theater, and this very readable work is still the last word on the subject. A required purchase for libraries with either the first edition or no edition at all; those with the expanded version might get by until the next edition.