"Experiencing Broadway Music: A Listener's Companion will cover approximately the last century of American musical theater, beginning with the early-twentieth-century shift from European-influenced operettas and bawdy variety shows to sophisticated works of seamlessly integrated song and dance that became uniquely American. It will conclude with an examination of current musical trends and practices on Broadway. As a musician who works on Broadway and in developmental musical theater, Kathryn Sherrell draws on both her knowledge as an historian of Broadway musical form and as a professional Broadway musician to explain and recreate the musical theatrical experience and offer an insider's perspective on the development and execution of the past and present Broadway scores. Despite its enormous breadth and given the historical significance of the musical in modern popular culture, Experiencing Broadway Music provides listeners--whether they know musical theater well or not at all--with the tools and background necessary to grasp or gain an understanding of the highly variegated structure and character of the Broadway musical over the last century."--Publisher's description.