To see a Broadway musical is to experience how a drama, using melody, harmony, and rhythm, evokes the emotion needed to perpetuate a story line. Without music, many of these plays would not succeed, failing to convey the intended message. This new edition of Swain's classic text, winner of the 1991 ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, reveals how a musical drama achieves plot movement, character development and conflict through strategic placement of song and music in 20 musical plays. Unlike critical literature that has simply explored theatrical style and production histories, this survey focuses mainly on the power of music. Illustrated with more than 150 musical excerpts and essays, Swain includes the latest research and viewpoints of contemporary critics, offering insight into dramatic expression and how renowned composers including Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Jerry Bock, Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber influenced the Broadway musical.

This provides insights into the many impressive musicals to hit the stage between the years of 1927 and 1987, illuminating how specific revisions to productions such as and, forever changed their popularity. Learn how music is used as a symbol for psychological or emotional action from Shakespearean drama's such as and , to more current dramas including , , and .

Replete with a never seen before essay on , this edition also includes an expanded epilogue highlighting the phenomena behind and , "megamusicals" that changed the direction of the Broadway tradition.

For professors of dramatic arts and people interested in Broadway musicals, theater, popular music and opera.