Oberon Books Presents The Sound of Musicals by Ruth Leon

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the U.S. distributor for Oberon Books (London), is pleased to announce The Sound of Musicals by Ruth Leon, a pocket-sized guide to musicals. In her newest work, Leon discusses the composers, lyricists, directors and pioneers of the stage musical on both sides of the Atlantic while trying to reveal the truth behind the eternal question - what are musicals and why do we love them? Containing light-hearted, informative essays with insights and portraits to delight, this musical survey is the perfect read for theatre aficionados and pop culture fans alike.

"A slim and succinct account of the handful of 20th century musicals which, in Leon's very well informed and experienced opinion have changed the genre forever...I learned a great deal."
-The Stage

Ruth Leon has worked on the musicals of the greats, from Sondheim to Bernstein to Lloyd Webber and everyone in between. In this new book, she brings together her experience as a director, broadcaster, critic and fan, with behind the scenes anecdotes to create a fascinating insight into the world of musical theatre.
Ruth Leon is a broadcaster and bestselling author specializing in all the performing arts. She is theatre critic and columnist for Playbill and playbill.com and writes about the theatre and dance for newspapers and magazines throughout the world. For some years she wrote theatre criticism for the European edition of the Wall Street Journal and was the Founding Editor of Theatregoer, a monthly magazine with national circulation. She is Visiting Professor of Drama at the University of Kingston Upon Thames and a Peabody and Emmy Award-winning television producer and director of music, theatre and arts programs.

Oberon Books, a UK theatre publisher, features both contemporary British plays and classics in translation. Alongside over 1,000 of the latest modern plays and classics from some of the world's leading dramatists, their list includes a wide range of new titles on theatre, opera, dance, biography, performance studies, monologues, practical guides, and fiction.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, exists to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional not-for-profit American theatre. TCG Books has published the work of more than 250 playwrights and other theatre professionals in single volumes and anthologies, and sold over 2.5 million books since emerging as a publisher in 1984. Its authors boast numerous Pulitzer Prizes and Tony Awards for Best Play or Book of a Musical and one Nobel Prize for Literature, in addition to countless OBIEs, Drama Desk awards and other national and international prizes. TCG also serves as the exclusive U.S. distributor for Playwrights Canada Press of Toronto, Padua Playwrights Press of Los Angeles, New York publishers League of Professional Theatre Women, PAJ Publications, Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Publications and Playscripts, and London publishers Nick Hern Books, Aurora Metro Publications and Oberon Books. TCG Books now represents over 1,600 titles. www.tcg.org/books

The Sound of Musicals
by Ruth Leon
Hardcover
$20.95 978-1-84943-018-0
April 2011

Also available from Oberon Books and distributed by TCG Books:

A Century of Theatre
by Ruth Leon and Sheridan Morley
$39.95 978-1-84002-058-8

TCG books are exclusively distributed to the book trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution. Orders: 800-283-3572. SAN number: 63170X. Individuals may call 212-609-5900 or visit our online bookstore at www.tcg.org. For postage and handling, please add $5.00 for the first book and $.50 for each additional copy.

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