Good Nights Out - A History of Popular British Theatre 1940-2015

Zusatztext An absolute pleasure to read ... I cannot recommend this book enough. I would urge everyone who has the slightest interest in Britain’s theatrical history to purchase this book and luxuriate in the wealth of talent, some of which has been long forgotten, that has graced the stages of the West End from the 1940s up to 2015. Informationen zum Autor Aleks Sierz is the theatre critic of Tribune and a freelance theatre reviewer. He is a lecturer in modern British theatre whose seminal study, In-Yer-Face Theatre , defined a new generation of writers and their work. In 2006 Methuen Drama published his guide, The Theatre of Martin Crimp , which was followed up by 2012's Modern British Playwriting: the 1990s . Sierz's journalism has featured in the Sunday Times , the Daily Telegraph and the Independent . He is a widely read, highly regarded critic of modern British theatre. Aleks Sierz FRSA is Visiting Professor at Rose Bruford College, London, UK, and author of In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today (Faber, 2001), John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (Continuum, 2008), Rewriting the Nation: British Theatre Today (Methuen Drama, 2011) and Modern British Playwriting: The 1990s (Methuen Drama 2012). He also works as a journalist, broadcaster, lecturer and theatre critic. Klappentext London's West End is a global success story, staging phenomenal hit shows that have delighted millions of spectators and generated billions of pounds in revenue. In Good Nights Out , Aleks Sierz provides a thematic survey of such popular theatre shows that were enormous commercial successes over the past 75 years. He argues that these outstanding hits have a lot to say about the collective cultural, social and political attitudes and aspirations of the country, and about how our national identity - and theatre's role in creating it - has evolved over the decades. The book spans a range of work from almost forgotten plays, such as R. F. Delderfield's Worm's Eye View and Hugh Hastings's Seagulls Over Sorrento , to well-known mega-hits, such as The Mousetrap and The Phantom of the Opera . Such popular work has tended to be undervalued by some critics and commentators mainly because it has not been thought to be a suitable subject for inclusion in the canon of English Literature. By contrast, Sierz demonstrates that genres such as the British musical, light comedy, sex farce or murder mystery are worth appreciating not only for their intrinsic theatrical qualities, but also as examples of the dream life of the British people. The book challenges the idea that mega-hits are merely escapist entertainments and instead shows how they contribute to the creation of powerful myths about our national life. The analysis of such shows also points towards the possibility of creating an alternative history of postwar British theatre.An alternative history of postwar British theatre which charts and examines the plays and musicals that were enormous commercial successes, but which are often omitted from historical accounts in favour of more complex, but less popular work. Aleks Sierz argues that such shows express the dreamlife of the British people at various points in postwar history and are of both social and cultural significance. Zusammenfassung London’s West End is a global success story, staging phenomenal hit shows that have delighted millions of spectators and generated billions of pounds in revenue. In Good Nights Out , Aleks Sierz provides a thematic survey of such popular theatre shows that were enormous commercial successes over the past 75 years. He argues that these outstanding hits have a lot to say about the collective cultural, social and political attitudes and aspirations of the country, and about how our national identity — and theatre’s role in creating it — has evolved over the ...

Product details

• Authors: Aleks Sierz, Aleks (Author Sierz, Sierz Aleks
• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.12.2019
• EAN: 9781350046214
• ISBN: 978-1-350-04621-4
• No. of pages: 240
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / General, Theatre Studies