{"product_id":"9781787440890","title":"Must Close Saturday: The Decline and Fall of the British Musical Flop","description":"The ominous announcement \"Must Close Saturday\" too often heralded the demise of British musicals. Looking forward from the vantage point of Lionel Bart's spectacularly successful \u003ci\u003eOliver!\u003c\/i\u003e in 1960, Adrian Wright's authoritative chronicle of the commercially unsuccessful British musical of the last half a century uncovers a wealth of fascinating material. In the wake of the resurgence that briefly blew through the British musical at the end of the 1950s with verismo works such as \u003ci\u003eFings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eExpresso Bongo\u003c\/i\u003e, the British musical was shaken by Bart's adaptation of Dickens, but was quickly left floundering in the face of constant critical complaint and financial failure.   The first book to deal exclusively with British musical flops, \u003ci\u003eMust Close Saturday\u003c\/i\u003e presents a rolling panorama of the good, the bad and the ugly, reassessing their place in theatrical history. Wright reveals a consistent striving at invention, with subjects including theelectric chair, the Holocaust, the Virgin Mary, social inequality and Trade Unionism, sexual problems and murder, as well as biographical treatments of Hollywood stars, French painters, tragic novelists, royalty, and the Rector of Stiffkey. Discursive and provoking, \u003ci\u003eMust Close Saturday\u003c\/i\u003e at last prises open the neglected history of the British musical flop up to 2016.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   ADRIAN WRIGHT is the author of \u003ci\u003eForeign Country: The Life of L. P. Hartley\u003c\/i\u003e (1996), \u003ci\u003eJohn Lehmann: A Pagan Adventure\u003c\/i\u003e (1998), \u003ci\u003eThe Innumerable Dance: The Life and Work of William Alwyn\u003c\/i\u003e (Boydell \u0026amp;Brewer, 2008), the novel \u003ci\u003eMaroon\u003c\/i\u003e (2010) and \u003ci\u003eThe Voice of Doom\u003c\/i\u003e (2016). His previous books on British musical theatre are \u003ci\u003eA Tanner's Worth of Tune: Rediscovering the Post-War British Musical\u003c\/i\u003e  (Boydell \u0026amp; Brewer, 2010) and \u003ci\u003eWest End Broadway: The Golden Age of the American Musical in London\u003c\/i\u003e (Boydell \u0026amp; Brewer, 2012). He lives in Norfolk.","brand":"Boydell \u0026 Brewer Group Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47164779987184,"sku":"9781787440890","price":26.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781787440890_p0.jpg?v=1763739082","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781787440890","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}