William A. Everett’s The Musical: A Research and Information Guide (2011), 2nd edition, is a bibliography that focuses primarily upon the history, creators, performers, and the production of American musical theatre from the late nineteenth century to the present day. It contains 1,474 items such as reference works, websites, articles from both scholarly and popular periodicals, recorded anthologies, essays, and dissertations and theses. Within his definition of ‘musical,’ Everett includes filmed and television musicals alongside the more traditional stage musicals, both mega-musical and obscure. Although the focus is predominantly American musical theatre, a few small sections also address European musicals, French operetta, and Bollywood. The broad majority of citations include annotations, as well as ISBN and Library of Congress call numbers when appropriate. Excluded from coverage are anthologies of “greatest hits,” cast and studio albums, soundtracks, and solo albums with a Broadway or Hollywood theme. As with all print publications citing websites, these items have the potential to disappear; however, the internet resources Everett chose to include are all reliable, popular reference sites that are unlikely to disappear from the Internet or change domains anytime soon. Students performing research on musical theatre will find this volume useful, as will those interested in expanding their knowledge on the subject.
Lindsay Weaver
Research Assistant