With an innovative historical framework, Carol J. Oja explores the emergence during World War II of Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green.

Carol J. Oja is William Powell Mason Professor of Music and American Studies at Harvard University. She is author of Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s (2000), winner of the Irving Lowens Book Award from the Society for American Music.

• Introduction


• Section I: Ballet, Nightclubs, Broadway


• 1.Youthful Celebrity and Progressive Visions: Breaking Out with Fancy Free


• 2. From Nightclubs to Broadway: The Revuers, Comedy Skits, and Progressive Politics


• 3. Creating a Broadway Musical: The Conception and Debut of On the Town


• Section II: Staging Racial Politics


• 4. A Japanese American Star on Broadway: Sono Osato and "Exotic Ivy Smith"


• 5. Desegregating Broadway: On the Town and Race


• 6. Biographies on Stage: On the Town's Black Conductor, Dancers, and Singers


• Section III: Musical Style


• 7. Crossover Composition: The Musical Styles of On the Town


• 8. On the Town After Dark: The Nightclub Scene


• Section IV: Epilogue


• Appendices


• A. Discography and Videography of Fancy Free, On the Town, and The Revuers


• B. Scenario for Fancy Free


• C. Cast List for On the Town on Opening Night


• Index