Includes bibliographical references and index.

Acknowledgments.- Notes on Contributors.- Introduction: How Do You Solve a Problem like the Film Musical?.- PART ONE: GENRE MATTERS.- From Homosocial to Heterosexual: The Musical's Two Projects; R.Altman.- British Gaiety: Musical Cinema and the Theatrical Tradition in British Film; L.Napper.- The Mellifluous Illogics of the 'Bollywood Musical'; B.Sarkar.- The International Art Musical: Defining and Periodizing the Post-1980s Musical; J.Feuer.- PART TWO: HISTORIES OF THE HOLLYWOOD MUSICAL.- Flirting with Terpischore: Dance, Class, and Entertainment in 1930s Musicals; A.L.McLean.- Star Spangled Shows: History and Utopia in Wartime Canteen Musicals; S.Cohan.- Sailors and Kissing Bandits: The Challenging Spectacle of Frank Sinatra at MGM; K.McNally.- Bloody Mary is the Girl I Love: U.S. White Liberalism vs. Pacific Islander Subjectivity in South Pacific; S.Griffin.- The Singing Sixties: Rethinking the Julie Andrews Roadshow Musical; B.Farmer.- The Streisand Musical; P.Robertson Wojcik.- PART THREE: BEYOND CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD.- The Music and Musicality of Bollywood; A.Morcom.- Robert Altman and the New Hollywood Musical; G.Sherwood Magee.- The Musical as Mode: Community Formation and Alternative Rock in Empire Records; K.J.Bozelka.- A Musical Dressed Up in a Different Way: Urban Ireland and the Possible Spaces of John Carney's Once; M.J.Fee.- Touch from a Distance: Christopher Honoré s Les Chansons d'Amour David; A.Gerstner.- Dozing off During History: Hairspray's Iterations and the Gift of Black Music; M.Tinkcom.

This new collection addresses the film musical, a central genre in the Hollywood studio system, which has also been important within British, Hindi and Chinese cinema. Leading international scholars explore key issues, traditions, subgenres, stars and films of the musical film from the 1930s to the present [Publisher description]