Filled with fascinating information and insight into theatrical history, Musical Theatre teaches readers about the performance genres that came to America with European immigrants and evolved over time to become the unique American form of entertainment known as musical theatre.

This introduction examines the beginnings of musical theatre in the 1800's, and progress chronologically and thematically through the early "gentlemen" composers George M. Cohen, Jerome Kern, and Irving Berlin, the musicals of the Great Depression, and the Golden Age of the musical from 1943 to 1959. The material in the text also explores humor's role in conveying serious ideas, and the advent of the variety show.