From Assassins to West Side Story: The Director's Guide to Musical Theatre

From Assassins to West Side Story is that rare theater textbook that is so articulate, insightful, and downright playful that it can be read simply for pleasure. If you're planning to direct one of these 16 shows, though, you'll have a far richer production for having employed its points. Scott Miller shows an uncommon, detailed understanding of the emotional machinery of these shows. He explores the use of the dies irae theme throughout Sweeney Todd; points out how the title character in Pippin becomes extraordinary only when he resolves to be ordinary; proposes unceasing motion as a staging concept and a theme in Les Miserables; suggests techniques to best let an audience grasp that time flows backward in Merrily We Roll Along; and ponders the nature of reality and unreality at the core of Man of La Mancha. Keep those cast albums ready, because you'll definitely be putting them on.