Item Detail
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Portantiere, Michael
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The theatermania guide to musical theater recordings
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Book
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New York, N.Y.
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2004
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Back Stage Books
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416 p. ; 24 cm.
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English
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0823084353; 9780823084357
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Musical theater.
Sound recordings--Catalogs and collections. -
Sound Recordings; Musical Theatre
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ML 156.4 .M8 T43 2004
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Portantiere, Michael. The Theater Mania: Guide to Musical Theater Recordings. New York: Back Stage Books, 2004.
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A guide to Broadway and Off-Broadway musical theater recordings in the form of reviews. Intended for anyone interested in musical theater.
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Coverage is recordings of scores heard in professional New York productions from the early 1920's to the present. For lack of space, foreign-language cast albums of musicals performed on Broadway are excluded. 95.5 percent of the reviews were written specifically for volume; the rest are revisions of reviews previously published on TheaterMania.com. Approximately 1,000 cast albums and soundtracks are included.
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The guide is divided into three sections. It begins with an introduction where the author defines terminology and the nature of book. Next is an About the Contributing Writers section. 16 writers are listed alphabetically with a short career blurb. In the main section, entries are listed alphabetically by title with multiple recordings for that title listed chronologically after. Each entry includes a review and rating of the album, and notes the type of album, release date, and record label. Scattered throughout the guide are lists of Ten All-Time Favorite Musicals by popular Broadway composers and performers. It concludes with two indexes. The first is an index of Five-Star Recordings listed alphabetically. The second is an alphabetical list of composers and lyricists.
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The content of the book is entirely subjective and includes only one opinion for each album. Underdog, unheard-of, and less successful musicals tend to receive a higher rating than mega-musicals or instant hits unless they are considered accepted Broadway classics.
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BYU Mus Ref
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4063