"Mark N. Grant thoroughly investigates all aspects of the Broadway musical as he traces the transformation of singing and melody, libretto and lyric writing, dance rhythms, sound design, and choreography and stage direction through three distinct eras: the formative period (1866-1927), the golden age (1927-1966), and the fall (1967 to the present). He explores how and why the unsophisticated genre of pre-1920s musical comedy evolved into the creative, innovative, and immensely popular theater produced by the likes of Rodgers and Hammerstein, and then steadily faded as a significant entertainment genre in American culture."--Jacket.