The Year that Made the Musical

William A. Everett is Curators' Distinguished Professor of Musicology Emeritus at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He is contributing co-editor to The Cambridge Companion to the Musical (with Paul R. Laird, 3rd edition, 2017) and currently edits the series 'Cambridge Elements in Musical Theatre', which is also published by Cambridge University Press.

• List of abbreviations; List of plates and figures; Acknowledgements; Chronology; Part I. From One Year to the Next: 1. Legacies; 2. Transnational connections; 3. Playing on the past; 4. Getting ready for 1924; Part II. From Winter to Spring: 5. A new year begins; 6. A tale of two operettas; 7. The coming of spring; 8. The resplendence of the revue; Part III. From Summer to Autumn: 9. Summertime frolics; 10. September sensibilities; 11. An abundant autumn; 12. November pairings; Part IV. From December Onward: 13. The first day of the last month of 1924; 14. In the days and weeks that followed; 15. Legacies of 1924; Selected discography and videography; Permissions; Sources; Index.

'William Everett examines the musical across continents, genres and languages in the seminal year of 1924, when the constellation of current and future stars aligned to create works of artistic brilliance and great popularity. For the first time in critical musical theatre scholarship equal treatment is given to cultural capitals across the Atlantic such as Madrid, Buenos Aires, New York, London, Berlin, Vienna and Milan, and to the multitude of genres that comprise musical theatre. Everett casts his net widely to include the usual characters - the Astaires, the Gershwins, Coward, Kern, Hammerstein, Romberg - and also less well-known figures, such as Sissle and Blake, Florence Mills, Emmerich Kálmán and Amadeo Vives – all of whom are part of the history of the musical in 1924. Beautifully researched and engagingly written, this is a virtuosic tour de force.' John Koegel, Professor of Musicology, California State University