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Author Lindberg, Julianne, author.

Title Pal Joey : the history of a heel / Julianne Lindberg
Published New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2020]
©2020

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Description 1 online resource (287 pages) : illustrations
Series Broadway Legacies Series
Broadway legacies
Contents Introduction: "a foul well" -- O'Hara, the heel: from short story to script -- Rodgers and Hart's boldest venture: working relationships and collaborative processes -- Digging for dirt: inside the club -- I could write a book (musical): the book numbers -- The women of Pal Joey -- Joey dances -- History of a heel: the 1952 revival -- Pal Joey goes to Hollywood
Summary "The History of a Heel chronicles the genesis, influence, and significance of Rodgers and Hart's classic musical comedy Pal Joey (1940). When Pal Joey opened at the Barrymore on Christmas day, 1940, it flew in the face of musical comedy convention. The characters and situation were depraved. The setting was caustically realistic. Its female lead was frankly sexual and yet not purely comic. A narratively-driven dream ballet closed the first act, begging audiences to take seriously the inner life and desires of a confirmed heel. Although the show appears on many top-ten lists surveying the so-called "Golden Age," it is a controversial classic; its legacy is tied both to the fashionable scandal that it provoked, and, retrospectively, to the uncommon attention it paid to characterization and narrative cohesion. Through an archive-driven investigation of the show and its music, History of a Heel offers insight into the historical moment during which Joey was born, and to the process of genre classification, canon formation, and the ensuing critical debates related to musical and theatrical maturity. More broadly, I argue that the critique and commentary on class and gender conventions in Pal Joey reveals a uniquely American concern over status, class mobility, and progressive gender roles in the pre-war eraThe History of a Heel chronicles the genesis, influence, and significance of Rodgers and Hart's classic musical comedy Pal Joey (1940). When Pal Joey opened at the Barrymore on Christmas day, 1940, it flew in the face of musical comedy convention. The characters and situation were depraved. The setting was caustically realistic. Its female lead was frankly sexual and yet not purely comic. A narratively-driven dream ballet closed the first act, begging audiences to take seriously the inner life and desires of a confirmed heel. Although the show appears on many top-ten lists surveying the so-called "Golden Age," it is a controversial classic; its legacy is tied both to the fashionable scandal that it provoked, and, retrospectively, to the uncommon attention it paid to characterization and narrative cohesion. Through an archive-driven investigation of the show and its music, History of a Heel offers insight into the historical moment during which Joey was born, and to the process of genre classification, canon formation, and the ensuing critical debates related to musical and theatrical maturity. More broadly, I argue that the critique and commentary on class and gender conventions in Pal Joey reveals a uniquely American concern over status, class mobility, and progressive gender roles in the pre-war era"--Publisher's description
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Online resource; title from web page (Oxford Scholarship Online, viewed on July 15, 2020)
Subject Rodgers, Richard, 1902-1979. Pal Joey.
SUBJECT Pal Joey (Rodgers, Richard) fast
Subject Musicals -- History and criticism.
Musicals
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780190051228
0190051221
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0190051213