...revelatory and entertaining. Viertel combines a scholarly approach with a light touch that enables us to see anew familiar songs and musical theater moments we’d long taken for granted.
His close analysis of craft doubles nicely as an account of the American musical’s evolution over the past century. From Carousel to Hello, Dolly! to Hamilton, we see style and content changing dramatically, even as the tools for conveying new ideas and new musical idioms remain generally the same.
