Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2017 -

This book is a massive undertaking and a much-needed addition to current scholarship on Japanese theater. Salz (Ryukoku Univ., Japan) assembled many of the top-tier scholars of Japanese theater and capitalized on their expertise to create an excellent compendium of more than 2,000 years of theatrical history. The general organization of the book is temporal, and essays outline particular performance forms and offer references for further reading. Of note are the sections that concentrate on trends and topics--for example, theater architecture, criticism and theory, intercultural influences--in so doing expanding an otherwise linear history into a more complete picture of theater in Japan. What makes the collection special, however, is the inclusion of "interludes" that focus on particular topics (e.g., Okinawan theater and kami-shibai, i.e., picture-card storytelling), and "focus" pages that highlight particular artists. The mix of authors creates some inconsistencies in detail from essay to essay, but all in all this is a wonderful overview of a rich theatrical world, a book with something for both specialists and generalists.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

This is one of best studies of early American popular culture to appear in the past half century. As director of the Historic Deerfield's Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife (Deerfield, Massachsetts), Benes is uniquely qualified to produce such work. He offers an original exploration of the rise of early American popular culture as told through the lives and work of itinerant entertainers (largely from England and Continental Europe) circulating in British North America and the US from the late-17th through the early-19th centuries. Benes's research is extensive and impeccable, as are his analyses and descriptions; he brings these show people to life and illustrates how they found an audience among highbrow and lowbrow alike. The author draws on hundreds of published sources, but he also relies on important primary items he uncovered (letters, diaries, reminiscences, broadsides, archived documents, newspapers, rare and unique images), materials that illuminate the stars of this itinerant population of entertainers: acrobats, wire dancers, tumblers, trick riders, painters, dancing masters, waxworks proprietors, healers, singing and language teachers, conjurors, et al. Including contemporaneous illustrations and a wonderful bibliography, this is a landmark study.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

From the 1910s through the 1920s, the American stage saw a series of spectacular musical productions called "revues." Joining numerous books on these productions--including The Shuberts Present: 100 Years of American Theater, by the staff of the Schubert Archives (CH, Jun'02, 39-5738)--the present volume explores one of the more dominant revues, the Passing Show, initiated in 1912 by the Shubert brothers (Jacob and Lee). Prior to this study, overviews of Florenz Ziegfeld's Follies dominated the literature on the subject, too often leaving the impression that they were the only truly important revues of these decades. Westover's excellent, corrective study brings important balance to the subject, offering the first detailed study of the revue series produced by these theatrical brothers at New York's Winter Garden Theatre and on tour. Westover (independent scholar) also provides an exceptionally strong overview of the genre in general, offering insights into other individuals who contributed to this phenomenon, with examples of specific shows and individuals. Excellent throughout, this study is unique for its extensive use of the Shubert Organization's Shubert Archive. The book includes good illustrations, and a companion website provides additional useful material. Westover provides wonderful suggestions for subjects waiting to be tackled.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.