Colin Larkin's database Encyclopedia of Popular Music continues to pour forth its fruits, and this latest Virgin Encyclopedia concentrates on that most abused of artistic forms, the musical. With lucid and readable short entries on individual musicals of stage and screen, their stars, composers, lyricists, directors, producers and (rated) recordings, this giant volume is a user-friendly, accessible and surprisingly accurate way into the genre. And for the perennial carpers there's always something to get your teeth into!
Larkin's stage is, unsurprisingly, the West End and Broadway, which gives a rather narrow focus compared to, for example, Kurt Ganzl's generous European surveys. He's also guilty of a certain London bias which means Barbara Dickson and Kiki Dee appear as important as, say, Carol Channing and Chita Rivera, and this bias produces unjustifiably lengthy entries on Cliff Richard and his Heathcliff.
The combining of previously separate books on film and stage musicals also leads to some avoidable duplication--more recent shows-become-movies like Evita are sensibly limited to a single entry, although this means that the current Broadway smash of The Lion King disappears altogether. But these are minor quibbles. This remains a massive achievement, impressively almost up to date (Broadway's Parade is here, the West End's Mamma Mia isn't), and the first stop for any budding showtoon fanatic. --Alan Stewart
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