Off-Broadway musicals since 1919 : from Greenwich Village follies to The toxic avenger /

In this needed complement to Larry Stempel's recent Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theatre, Hischak (theater, SUNY at Cortland; Theatre as Human Action: An Introduction to Theatre Arts) surveys nearly 400 musicals, providing opening dates, authors, composers, and cast members. The synopses are concise and informative and, occasionally and enjoyably, snarky (do not invite him to your theater's production of Nunsense or any of its sequels). For the musical-obsessed and the libraries that love them, an appendix listing recordings (LP, CD, and DVD) is provided, together with a brief bibliography. Hischak explains that off-Broadway musicals offer "a more direct kind of music, dance, and comedy" than Broadway shows and often display a more direct connection to the times through music in a more intimate forum. Verdict Your catalogers may be tempted to place this book in the reference section, but it needs to circulate because patrons will want to take it home to make lists of shows to discover, from Alfred Brooks and Ira J. Bilowit's 1958 Of Mice and Men to Menopause: The Musical. An essential purchase.-Larry Schwartz, Minnesota State Univ. Lib., Moorhead (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.