Author Description

"Sternfeld's long-awaited study of some of the most popular megamusicals addresses a gap in scholarship on American musical culture. She discusses the history of the megamusical, examining both its internal, performative qualities and its external market reception to reveal why they are so popular. Sternfeld concentrates on two of the most successful megamusicals: Lloyd Webber's Cats, the longest-running musical on Broadway, and Schonberg and Boublil's Les Miserables, the most popular and internationally successful piece of musical theater of all time. Each of these musicals receives in-depth treatment, including an examination of their creation and reception histories as well as an analysis of their scores and staging. Finally, she discusses several other megamusicals of the 1980s and 1990s, with an eye toward their competition and influence in other musical theatre genres."--Jacket.