Innehåller plot summaries and lists of numbers

"Why'd you choose such a backward time and such a strange land?" : Jesus Christ Superstar -- "Humming the scenery" : the megamusical ascending -- "Well, the theatre is certainly not what it was" : Cats -- "To love another person is to see the face of God" : Les misérables -- "The angel of music sings songs in my head" : The phantom of the Opera -- "A model of decorum and tranquility" : other megamusicals in the 1980s -- "New music" : the megamusical in the 1990s -- "Everything is show biz" : the megamusical and Broadway in the twenty-first century.

A megamusical is an epic, dramatic show featuring recurring melodies in a sung-through score; huge, impressive sets; and grand ideas. These qualities are accompanied by intensive marketing campaigns, unprecedented international financial success, and a marked disjunction between critical reaction and audience reception. Audiences adore megamusicals; they flock to see them when they open, and return again and again, helping long-lived shows to become semi-permanent tourist attractions. Yet generally speaking, critics either dismiss megamusicals as superficial entertainment, or rail against them as offensively simple-minded money-making scams. This audience/critic division lies at the heart of Sternfeld's study

Dawson