The Oxford Companion to the American Musical
Oxford University Press
Nobody has a harder time of it than the heroic compiler of a lexicon. Call it, if you prefer, dictionary or, by a friendlier name, companion—if not, indeed, by the formidable moniker enchiridion—his or hers is an awesome task.
There is, however, some compensation. No reviewer of such a work knows as much about its subject as the compiler. The most captious or carping critic may triumphantly unearth a few lapses—a date one year off or a name misspelled—but then, nobody is perfect. So, conceivable nitpicking aside, the reviewer cannot suppress his thankfulness for a hugely reliable, handy tool—a handbook, if you will.
Thus my great gratitude goes out to The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television by Thomas Hischak. My gratitude is as great, and possibly even as long, as its title. Hischak's compendium (here's another honorific!) is a true companion. Anyone interested in musical theater—and who isn't?—will want its constant companionship. Someone having to write about the musical theater may even want it (the companion, not the musical theater) under his pillow at night.
For some time, to be sure, there was Gerald Bordman's meritorious American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle. But this 787-page tome (which, in any case, had no truck with film or television) stopped at 1978. By 1979, anyone in need, however desperate, of a Companion or Chronicle was as helpless as an orphan in a storm. He might have perused Bordman's book from cover to cover without discovering there was a 1999 musical based on the movie Saturday Night Fever, let alone that it had a libretto by Nan Knighton distinguished by "cheap melodramatics."
But there is more, much more. Suppose you are crazy enough (as what true musical lover isn't?) to wish to know everything about Gypsy, having just seen its current Broadway avatar. Besides generous entries about the 1959 original production and its 1962 cinematic reincarnation, you will find two boxes, with shaded backgrounds, one listing the show's musical numbers and the other the names of the major performers in five Broadway versions, plus one each on film and TV.
Now, I know that you, true lover that you are, can rattle off the names of all the Momma Roses, as well as most of the Herbies and Louises. But rack your brains as you might, I bet you a dollar you can't come up with the movie June (Ann Jillian) and the television Herbie (Peter Riegert—although the book has Reigert), good as they were.
Never mind if you don't have an urgent question in need of answer. Suppose you just want a refreshing stroll down musical comedy's memory lane, roam no further than the Companion. You will not only be able to relive some of your happy memories, you will even rediscover forgotten pleasures or stumble onto new ones. Open the book at random, as I did, and learn that Larry Kert played Tony in West Side Story not only on Broadway, but also in London, on tour, and in regional theaters for years to come. And here one thought that Yul Brynner had a monopoly on such ubiquity.
So, if you have the least affection for, or interest in, musicals, buy this book. You are exempted only if you are a student at the State University of New York College at Cortland. There you have Thomas Hischak as your Professor of Theatre, and I'm sure he can answer any question you may have right off the cuff.
However, come to think of it, you are probably too considerate to importune him with your petty problems. So, correction: Buy this book regardless. If you don't, you'll marvel in future at my omniscience in musical-comedy matters. And you know how I hate to bask in someone else's glory.
John Simon is the New York theater critic for Bloomberg News.