Open a new window : the Broadway musical in the 1960s

In the 1960s, the Broadway musical underwent a profound change.

At the beginning of the decade, "the street" was home to beautiful, but standard musicals such as "The Gay Life", "She Loves Me", "Hello Dolly!" and others, but in the mid sixties, a show opened that forever changed the way the Broadway musical was created: "Cabaret".

In "Open a New Window", Ethan Mordden continues his history of the Broadway musical by looking at the decade that bridged the gap between the romantic, fanciful entertainment that came before, such as "Fiorello" and "Call Me Madam", to the time when "adult musicals" such as "Company", "A Little Night Music" and "Follies" (all from the pen of Stephen Sondheim, acknowledged master of the genre) were commonplace.

Any one interested in how we got to today's Broadway stage, littered with upstate men gyrating in red g-strings and French revolutionists belting out syrupy anthems, will probably want to read Ethan Mordden's latest.