Oxford University Press Music of the Night: Religious Influences and Spiritual Resonances in Operetta and Musical Theatre

This book offers readers a fascinating new look into the spiritual side of operetta and musical theatre, two closely related genres often dismissed as trivial, shallow, and essentially secular. Bradley challenges these judgements and seeks to show that there have been clear religious influences and spiritual resonances in some of the best known and most popular works in both genres. He points to the darker and more serious side of operetta and musical theatre to analyse the work of Offenbach, Lehár, Gilbert and Sullivan, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Sondheim, Schwartz, Lloyd Webber, and Boublil and Schoenberg. Readers will never listen to The Mikado, The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, Sweeney Todd, Wicked, Les Miserables and The Lion King in the same way again. Using hitherto largely neglected sources, Music of the Night explores the Jewish and Catholic roots of French operetta composers, the impact of Franz Lehár's Catholic faith, the effect of Oscar Hammerstein's early exposure to Universalism, and the High Church aesthetic of Andrew Lloyd-Webber. Further chapters discuss Arthur Sullivan's softening and spiritualising effect on W. S. Gilbert's lyrics in the Savoy operas, Stephen Sondheim's secularism, and Stephen Schwartz as the 'reluctant pilgrim'. There is specific analysis of the religious influences and spiritual resonances in six key musicals: The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar, Les Misérables and The Lion King. A concluding chapter briefly surveys the musicals of the twenty-first century.