Anything Goes - A History of American Musical Theatre

Anything Goes stages a grand revue of the musical from the 1920s through the 1970s, narrated in Mordden's famously witty, scholarly and conversational style

He peers with us over Stephen Sondheim's shoulder as he composes at the piano

He places us in a bare rehearsal room as the cast of Oklahoma! changes history by psychoanalysing the plot in the greatest of the musical's many Dream Ballets

And he gives us tickets for orchestra seats on opening night - raising the curtain on the pleasures of Victor Herbert's The Red Mill and the thrill of Porgy and Bess

Mordden examines the music, of course, but also more neglected elements

Dance was once considered as crucial as song - he follows it from the nineteenth century's zany hoofing to tap 'combinations' of the 1920s, from the injection of ballet and modern dance in the 1930s and 40s to the innovations of Bob Fosse

He also explores the changing structure of musical comedy and operetta and the evolution of the role of the star

From'ballad opera' to burlesque, from Fiddler on the Roof to Rent, the history and lore of the musical unfolds here in a performance worthy of a standing ovation