Musicals at the Margins

Richly referenced and meticulously edited, Musicals at the Margins is an essential book in cinema scholarship and will surely lead to wider conversations and more specific studies in the future. * Lou Reviews Blog *
Harnessing a mixture of critical insight and knowledge as dazzling as the musical itself, Julie Lobalzo Wright and Martha Shearer have brought together a diverse group of writers to define and redefine musical films beyond the familiar canon. This superbly revealing collection offers entirely new perspectives on the boundaries of a genre that has often left scholars bewitched, bothered and bewildered. * Dominic McHugh, Professor in Musicology, University of Sheffield, UK *
Musicals at the Margins covers a wide range of musical texts existing on the borders of the genre, expanding and complicating how musical texts make meaning as musicals. The anthology’s remarkable selection of scholars examines generic outliers—like rockumentaries, dance-focused films, televised lip-synching contests, Bollywood “song picturization,” and short-form pop music film—demonstrating how methodologies developed by canonical musical scholars like Rick Altman and Jane Feuer continue to inform contemporary scholarship. As the boundaries between genres, media platforms, and audiences become increasingly difficult to parse, Shearer and Wright’s collection is a much-needed addition to the existing literature on the musical, and the field of genre theory as a whole. * Amanda Ann Klein, Associate Professor of Film Studies, East Carolina University, USA *