...[an] exquisitely detailed, loving history of the genre ... propelled by equal measures of deep insight and breezy anecdote ... Basinger’s exuberant style — the exclamation mark in her title almost seems to declare the book a kindred spirit to Oklahoma! — coupled with her dry wit, is hard to resist. Her writing zips along with the same razzle-dazzle she so loves in the movies she discusses, while the sumptuous selection of photographs included in the book offers the perfect visual counterpart. Whatever reservations she may harbor about certain recent movie musicals, Basinger has not lost her faith. 'Who today can outsmart the old musical?' she asks, inviting a challenge. 'Who wants to try?' The heart of this book lies in her answer: 'Someone, I hope.'

Jeanine Basinger is a veteran film historian and author with a well-respected body of work — behind her. But read her new book, The Movie Musical!, and you might think she's a debut author with something to prove. And, in fact, she does ... Basinger wisely isn't trying to argue that musicals take up more space in the pop-culture consciousness circa 2019 than they actually do. What she does argue, authoritatively and passionately, is that the musical has never really left us, and that there's relevance and inspiration to be eternally gleaned from the golden age of Hollywood musicals ... The book darts and weaves dexterously through subgenres, superstars, and studio politics, leaving no stone unturned as Basinger assembles a mosaic of the musical's history ... The Movie Musical! is a downright delightful read ... What makes The Movie Musical! truly dazzle, however, is its insight ... Every page is infused not only with Basinger's knowledge, but her overwhelming adoration for the tuneful, silver-screen tales that changed her own life. The book is a passion project, organically rendered, and shot through with longing for an age where sophistication was as subtle as it was scintillating. The Movie Musical! is more than a love letter to a great American artform; it's a symphony.

Jeanine Basinger has since seen many more movies than I. She seems, in fact, to have seen all movies, right up to yesterday ... at once an impressive history and a penetrating criticism of movie musicals, nicely punctuated by the author’s wit and insider knowledge ... In her book’s final section, Ms. Basinger discusses, in sometimes tedious detail, many of the movie musicals made after the close of the studio era, all the way up to 2016’s La La Land and 2018’s A Star Is Born. She grants the strengths to be found in some of these movies, but also locates their usually ruinous flaws.

Basinger takes an in-depth look at the Hollywood musical in this lively and informative study of the quintessential American film art form. There is a lot of ground to cover, and the author is the perfect guide, taking readers back to the movies’ early days and the advent of sound, the uncharted waters of early productions, the jungle that was the studio system, and beyond. A selection of gorgeous photographs, including stills and studio shots, enhances the work. This is more than a sentimental journey, however. Perceptive portraits explore the roles of movie icons and iconoclastic filmmakers in the development of the genre, and Basinger’s enthusiastic, knowledgeable text is topped off with a carefully compiled bibliography. All that is lacking is a soundtrack, but the writing is so vivid that those beloved tunes will pop into your head once you start to read ... Movie buffs and film students alike will applaud this delightful and insightful work.

The exclamation point signifies both the zeal that film historian Jeanine Basinger brings to her decades-spanning survey and the way in which the genre itself rises, without apology, above the mere declarative ... Basinger has her own tart thoughts...Some are right on point ... But anyone looking for a consistently bracing critical intelligence like Arlene Croce or Molly Haskell will find Basinger’s approach too rangy and scattershot. She has a habit of repeating herself ... Elsewhere, Basinger’s prose lapses into cliche and fan-magazine gushing ... She scants a lot of the Disney musicals, and she virtually ignores Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, the TV series that, better than any recent Hollywood product, has revivified the old song-and-dance tradition. Perhaps most seriously, she can’t decide in her summation if the classic musical needs to be emulated or outsmarted ... The real value of The Movie Musical! may just be to call the roll, invoking, yes, titans like Gene Kelly and Vincente Minnelli but also the host of ancillary talents who’ve diverted us through the years. By book’s end, closet musical lovers will have new treasures to carry back into their YouTube caves.

... the author covers a lot of new ground ... There is ome overindulgence on certain stars, and there are glaring omissions on some key people working behind the scenes—Roger Edens, for instance, the musical arranger and vocal coach to many stars, including Garland ... One of the most interesting aspects of the book is Basinger’s analysis of the cultural backdrops of every era that made musicals inspire a nation in the darkest days of the Depression and WWII, to decades in which musicals were box-office poison, but continued to change with the culture ... Basinger touches on issues of racial stereotypes, but perhaps gives a more in-depth history about the treatment of minority performers and the destructive cultural impact of racially demeaning characters that was the norm in musicals for decades ... The dicey technical and artistic aspects of converting successful Broadway musicals into hit movies is rigorously detailed by Basinger. The Movie Musical is entertaining and on balance a comprehensive study. For musical film buffs this book is a trove of details about screen adaptations of big Broadway musicals.

Film historian Basinger...returns with this exhaustive and exhilarating survey of the American musical ... Because of the rigorous scholarship, readers will feel they are in good hands when Basinger digresses from strict facts into opinion ... The depth of her dislike feels telling: this is a passion project for her. That passion should be infectious for all readers of Basinger’s monumental but fleet-footed epic.

The renowned film scholar delivers a lively history of musicals beloved and forgotten ... Though sometimes diffuse, this is an essential addition to any film lover’s library.