Making Americans : Jews and the Broadway Musical

Rating:
Summary: The sum of its parts
Review: In "Making Americans", Andrea Most has crafted a fascinating, if flawed, treatise based on the premise that the Jewish influence on Broadway Musicals was also a major force in the creation of the American way of life in the 20th century. Since it is, first and formeost, an academic work, some of the flaws are inherent in the genre (e.g. a highly repetitive introduction; little of the "razzle-dazzle" that fans of the musical have come to expect from books on the subject; a selective use of sources to prove her point-and a bit of stretching at times to make the selection do its duty, etc.). While I find it difficult to subscribe to the totality of her argument, and have serious questions about whether a given interpretation of facts is, indeed, the most correct (or even intended)one the authors she discusses had in mind, I cannot fault her over-all premise as a POSSIBLE one. What sets the work apart, however, is NOT the whole, but the sum of its parts. Within the over-view, Most presents detailed examinations of a handful of theater works that often offer new insights to these works AS WORKS, whether or not one feels they ratify the over-riding concept. It is for these insights that I recommend the work to any lover of the Musical theater, regardless of race, creed, or religion.

Rating:
Summary: The sum of its parts
Review: In "Making Americans", Andrea Most has crafted a fascinating, if flawed, treatise based on the premise that the Jewish influence on Broadway Musicals was also a major force in the creation of the American way of life in the 20th century. Since it is, first and formeost, an academic work, some of the flaws are inherent in the genre (e.g. a highly repetitive introduction; little of the "razzle-dazzle" that fans of the musical have come to expect from books on the subject; a selective use of sources to prove her point-and a bit of stretching at times to make the selection do its duty, etc.). While I find it difficult to subscribe to the totality of her argument, and have serious questions about whether a given interpretation of facts is, indeed, the most correct (or even intended)one the authors she discusses had in mind, I cannot fault her over-all premise as a POSSIBLE one. What sets the work apart, however, is NOT the whole, but the sum of its parts. Within the over-view, Most presents detailed examinations of a handful of theater works that often offer new insights to these works AS WORKS, whether or not one feels they ratify the over-riding concept. It is for these insights that I recommend the work to any lover of the Musical theater, regardless of race, creed, or religion.