Words with Music: Creating the Broadway Musical Libretto

by HowardKissel (Editor), Lehman Engel (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2004

  $24.45

  The dean of Broadway musical directors examines the dynamics of how the book, music, and lyrics work together to create hits. Howard Kissel extends the reach of Engel's subjects - My Fair Lady , Fiddler on the Roof , Guys and Dolls , Hair , Pal Joey , West Side Story , South Pacific , The Three Penny Opera , Porgy and Bess - by bringing them up to date with commentary on such shows as A Chorus Line , Nine , Sunday in the Park with George , Rent , Working , Falsettos , and The Light in the Piazza . Kissel offers an attentive history of how musical theatre has evolved in the three decades since Engel wrote Words With Music (1972) , and examines how Engel's classic remains vital and revealing today.