While parts of Lamb’s book do not relate to jazz standards, he offers an interesting look at the history of musical theater in America, Britain and Europe. Part I begins in1850 and traces the rise in popularity of the operetta in Europe, and Part III is devoted to theater on the Continent.

However, in Parts II and IV, Lamb discusses the development of comic operetta from Gilbert and Sullivan in England to vaudeville in America and the early contributions of Victor Herbert, George M. Cohen, and producer Florenz Ziegfeld. In the 1920s American musical theater flourished under Jerome Kern, the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, and others who contributed to the jazz standards repertoire. Lamb describes the ascendance of the “idiosyncratically American, song-and-dance musicals,” the importance of productions such as Show Boat and Porgy and Bess, and the influence of jazz on the music, dance and performers.

Part IV covers the musical in postwar London (i.e. Stop the World--I Want to Get Off) and “the golden age of the American musical” which gave us Oklahoma! My Fair Lady, West Side Story, and works by Cole Porter and Irving Berlin. He discusses new composers, lyricists and musicals from the last quarter of the century such as Evita, Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Les Miserables, and Rent.

Andrew Lamb is a British musicologist, writer, and broadcaster who is well known as an authority on operetta and musicals.