Irving Berlin's American Musical Theater (Broadway Legacies)

Irving Berlin's American Musical Theater (Broadway Legacies) by Magee, Jeffrey. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780195398267.

From patriotic "God Bless America" to wistful "White Christmas," Irving Berlins songs have long accompanied Americans as they fall in love, go to war, and come home for the holidays. Irving Berlins American Musical Theater is the first book to fully consider this songwriters immeasurable influence on the American stage. Award-winning music historian Jeffrey Magee chronicles Berlins legendary theatrical career, providing a rich background to some of the great composers most enduring songs, from "Theres No Business Like Show Business" to "Puttin on the Ritz." Magee shows how Berlins early experience singing for pennies made an impression on the young man, who kept hold of that sensibility throughout his career and transformed it into one of the defining attributes of Broadway shows. Magee also looks at darker aspects of Berlins life, examining the anti-Semitism that Berlin faced and his struggle with depression. Informative, provocative, and full of colorful details, this book will delight song and theater aficionados alike as well as anyone interested in the story of a man whose life and work expressed so well the American dream.