Musical Theatre is a comprehensive history of stage musicals from Paris during the 1840s, all the way up to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Broadway as it we know it today.Musicals are dead! From producers to actors to ushers, everyone has said it. Times have changed in the musical theatre. But why should this be considered a harbinger of death? Like film and television, literature and music, the musical theatre has been changing and evolving since its inception.Musicals have been around for more than 2000 years. This book begins with the ancient Greeks, for whom songs were a common element in staging. The Romans borrowed many of the classical forms and added visual spectacle. The musical as we know it was born!The musical theatre we know today first appeared in Paris during the 1840s. It was then a short step to the minstrel shows of the US, Gilbert and Sullivan in the UK and eventually to George M. Cohan, Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, Oscar Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein and Andrew Lloyd Webber. The 21st century has brought a new wave of pop comedies like The Rich in anecdotes of shows and show people, Musicals Theatre: A History is designed as a celebration for those in the theatre as well as all Broadway and West End fans.