A great deal has happened in the realm of musical theatre and musical theatre scholarship since the first edition of The Cambridge Companion to the Musical appeared in 2002 and the second edition in 2008. Les Misérables closed on Broadway only to be revived three and a half years later; a new Lloyd Webber musical The Woman in White, while successful in London, failed in New York; the genre of the film musical has experienced a significant renaissance; and the television musical has gained cultural clout as its own art form.
The third edition of The Cambridge Companion to the Musical, like the first two, offers an array of essays intended to illuminate particular areas of the genre. It is not intended to be an all-inclusive history or survey. Neither do all authors take the same approach – some offer overviews while others emphasise seminal works or significant themes.
Most chapters from the second edition appear in either their original form or with slight alterations and updating. We have moved what was the final chapter in the second edition, a case study of Wicked, to the front of the volume to set the stage for the essays that follow. The chapter on the European musical has been significantly reworked, and recent research on rock musicals has been incorporated into that chapter. Two new chapters appear in the present edition, one on the British musical since 1970 and the other on television musicals.
The editors wish to thank the contributors to the volume and the staff at Cambridge University Press, especially Victoria Cooper, who oversaw the first two editions, and Kate Brett, who guided the third edition to publication, for their support and enthusiasm.
