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This is the first book to reconstruct early popular musical theatre as a transnational and highly cosmopolitan entertainment industry.
List of contents
Introduction Len Platt, Tobias Becker and David Linton; Part I. The Mechanics of Transfer and Translation: 1. Berlin/London: London/Berlin: an outline of cultural transfer, 1890-1914 Len Platt; 2. Local contexts and genre construction in early continental musical theatre Marion Linhardt; 3. German operetta in the West End and on Broadway Derek B. Scott; 4. The Arcadians and Filmzauber: adaptation and the popular musical theatre text Tobias Becker; 5. How a sweet Viennese girl became a fair international lady: transfer, performance, modernity Stefan Frey; 6. 'A happy man can live in the past': musical theatre transfer in the 1920s and 1930s Len Platt and Tobias Becker; Part II. Atlantic Traffic: 7. Hullo Ragtime! West End revue and the Americanisation of popular culture in pre-1914 Britain Peter Bailey; 8. The Argentine tango: a transatlantic dance on the European Stage Kerstin Lange; 9. Dover Street to Dixie and the politics of cultural transfer and exchange David Linton and Len Platt; 10. The transculturality of stage, song and other media: intermediality in popular musical theatre Carolin Stahrenberg and Nils Grosch; Part III. Representation in Transition: Stage Others: 11. The Sandow Girl and her sisters: the construction and performance of the healthy female body in fin de siècle musical comedy Viv Gardner; 12. West End musical theatre and the representation of Germany Len Platt; 13. The Tropical Express: an exotic non-stop revue in Nazi Germany Susann Lewrenz; 14. Operetta and propaganda: the politicisation of popular musical theatre in the Third Reich Matthias Kauffmann.
About the author
Len Platt is Professor of Modern Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London. His research interests include modern literature, James Joyce and popular musical theatre and his publications include James Joyce: Texts and Contexts (2011), Modernism and Race (edited, 2010), Joyce, Race and 'Finnegans Wake' (2006), Musical Comedy on the West End Stage, 1890–1939 (2004) and Aristocracies of Fiction (2003).Tobias Becker is a lecturer at the Freie Universität Berlin. His research focuses upon the history of popular culture and urban history in Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and his publications include Inszenierte Moderne. Populäres Theater in Berlin und London, 1880–1930 (2014) and Die Stadt der tausend Freuden. Vergnügungskultur um 1900 (edited with Anna Littmann and Johanna Niedbalski, 2011).David Linton is a theatre practitioner and an associate lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London. His research interests include multidisciplinary participatory arts practice, popular musical theatre, Black performance and the formation and representation of national and cultural identities.
Summary
In the decades before the Second World War, popular musical theatre was a global industry. This collection brings together international contributors to offer new insights into historical popular culture in London and Berlin, and the Anglo-German relationship during a period of intense hostility and rivalry.
