Red Hot & Blue: A Smithsonian Salute to the American Musical

Rating:
Summary: It makes a gorgeous coffee-table book, but it's a lot more.
Review: The development of American musicals is a gift we gave to the world, but how do we begin? This book is a cultural history, focusing on the interweaving history of theater and film musicals. Red, Hot, and Blue brings in the various elements that go into creating a musical movie or play. These include performers, songwriters, directors, choreographers all within the framework of the society in which they work. It presents the atmosphere in which an art form was created.

Photographs, posters, sheet music, all help to illustrate this phenomenon called musical theater, which blossomed during the 20th century. It also offers other sources for further information on any of the aspects treated here.

-Elizabeth Ahlfors