The musical theatre is, today, neither a new nor an untried medium. It matured in the middle of the 20th century, specifically in America and principally in New York, through a pronounced creative movement, begun decades prior and brought to a close in the 1960s, to better the art of musical storytelling – a movement documented in the original works and first-person accounts of George Abbott, James Montgomery, Kurt Weill, and many more. The evolution of the American musical, up to and including its establishment as a distinct, mature art form in the middle of the 20th century, was notably complex, largely nonlinear, and defined by no one story, no one style, no one subject, and no one sound. Nor was it defined by any one artist or any single narrative pattern. Understanding the form’s evolution, and especially its mid-century maturation, is critical to the creation of new works that bear the cultural imprint of our current times and realize the professionalism and excellence possible on the legitimate musical stage.

The American Musical: Evolution of an Art Form (Routledge, 2024) is available to read for a detailed and comprehensive dissection of the American musical’s artistic evolution. It contains numerous dialogue and lyric excerpts; it actively addresses Black and female artists; and it examines the form’s outside influences such as minstrelsy, vaudeville, nightclubs, and burlesque. The book is organized into seven parts and 55 chapters:

Part 1: Inventions, Influences, and Imports (1800s)
1. Minstrelsy
2. The Variety Show
3. The Legitimate Musical Stage
4. Ragtime and Coon Songs

Part 2: Birth of an Art Form (1900-1924)
5. Vaudeville, Part One: Time and Talent
6. Vaudeville, Part Two: Tin Pan Alley
7. Vaudeville, Part Three: Sketches and Tabs
8. Burlesque
9. Bob Cole and the Black Musical Stage
10. The Early Musical Comedy
11. Revue
12. The Great Winter Garden Factory
13. The Hippodrome Shows
14. The Spectacular Musical Play
15. American Operetta
16. The Princess Musicals
17. Nightclubs, Part One: Folies Bergère, etc.
18. The Great War, Prohibition, and Women’s Suffrage
19. Jazz, Part One: The Musicians
20. Jazz, Part Two: The Musicals
21. The New Musical Comedy
22. Shuffle Along and the Black Renaissance

Part 3: Intensification (1925-1930)
23. Nightclubs, Part Two: The Plantation, etc.
24. Pleasure Bound
25. Howard Dietz and the New Revue
26. Jazz Age Musical Comedy, Part One: The Tunersmiths
27. Jazz Age Musical Comedy, Part Two: The Adventurers
28. Oscar Hammerstein II and the Musical Play

Part 4: Convention, or Maturity, Part One: Craft and Construction (1931-1950)
29. Sophisticated Revue
30. The Sophisticated Musical Stage
31. Nightclubs, Part Three: Casino de Paree, etc.
32. The African-American Exit
33. Hollywood and the Popular Song
34. The Second World War
35. Integrated Folktales
36. The Musical Comedy Stage
37. The Abbott Touch
38. Guys and Dolls

Part 5: Convention, or Maturity, Part Two: Style and Structure (1951-1970)
39. Character and Quirks and Comedy and Farce
40. The New Musical Play
41. Staging and Story
42. Nontraditional Storytelling
43. Hair vs. Your Own Thing
44. Off-Broadway

Part 6: Diminution (1971-1980)
45. Nostalgia, Revivals, and Reinventions
46. The All-Purpose Revue
47. The African-American Resurgence
48. Contemporary Sounds, Part One: Andrew Lloyd Webber, etc.
49. A Chorus Line
50. Sophisticated Storytelling

Part 7: Growing Pains, or Identity Crisis (1981-1999)
51. Dialogue, Song, and Dance
52. George C. Wolfe and the Black Musical Stage
53. Contemporary Sounds, Part Two: Jonathan Larson, etc.
54. Revivals
55. Miscellany

The American Musical: Evolution of an Art Form further contains, in the back, a brief discussion of the 21st century and an evolutionary timeline, which is unable to be reprinted here. The book was written by Ben West, creator and author of The Musical Theatre Report.