For many of us, with only a passing knowledge of American musical theatre, this is a godsend. I always suspected that these composers borrowed freely from each other and was not surprised to find out that they were often each others mentors.
The section on the THE CRADLE WILL ROCK was an alarming history lesson in recent censorship and should be as much a part of school curriculum as prohibition or blacklisting. Perhaps New York would not be so quick to condemn other states if it faced its own history of oppression since the behaviour of the city has often been the forerunner of standards, including censorship, elsewhere.
The series captures the social and artistic effects of SHOW BOAT, OKLAHOMA!, WEST SIDE STORY, HAIR and A CHORUS LINE among many others and beautifully highlights the effect they had not only on audiences but also on the talent behind the scenes.
One surprising (and annoying) feature of this set is the misguided effort to highlight the contribution of African Americans by segregating black performances into sections. The final effect is an "us and them" result that will appear racist as the years go by. Surely the contribution of black talent is not any more or less important than that of any other minority in the melting pot and the series easily integrates Jewish, Irish and Hispanic contributions effortlessly. Surely there is no need to suggest that Ethel Waters brought more to the stage by way of personal baggage than Fanny Brice or Harvey Fierstein. One obvious and major contributing element that becomes an elephant in the room to anyone who has ever seen a Broadway musical is delicately footnoted. This element is the fact that these shows are usually, dare I say it, quite gay in every sense of the word. Perhaps this is a current mutation of the badly kept Hollywood secret that the studios were mostly run by Jews. Do the producers really think it unimportant or simply too obvious to address?
