Ring Bells! Sing Songs!: Broadway Musicals of the 1930's

by Stanley Green

Book Overview

definitive and extravagantly illustrated history of Broadway's most memorable and tuneful decade. from strike up the band to dubarry was a lady. complete casts and credits for all 175 musicals... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870001337
• ISBN13: 9780870001338
• Release Date: January 1971
• Publisher: Arlington House
• Length: 385 Pages
• Weight: 3.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Joyous Look At A Long-Lost Era

RING BELLS! SING SONGS! is one of the ten best of the hundreds of books I've ever read on musical theatre. Only a few of the 1930's Broadway musicals are performed today, but it was a time when Broadway gradually moved from the giddy reviews and often silly book shows of the 20's toward the more mature form that would blossom in the 40's. In RING BELLS we see the growth take place show by show, season by season. What a panorama we get: The last gasps of old-style operetta by composers like Friml & Romberg, Ziegfeld's final efforts, dizzy musical comedies with glorious scores by Berlin and Porter, the dazzling debuts of Ethel Merman and Mary Martin, the Gershwin's moving from the lighthearted GIRL CRAZY to their landmark PORGY & BESS, and daring musical experiments by Weill, Brecht, and even Gertrude Stein. This underestimated decade in musical theatre comes to life here, in a refreshingly readable text that blends facts and anecdotes with tons of rare photos. It's one of the prolific Stanley Green's most enjoyable books. I recommend it to anyone who loves reading about the musical theatre.