New Line Theatre, "the bad boy of musical theatre," announces the release of artistic director Scott Miller's sixth book on musical theatre, SEX, DRUGS, ROCK & ROLL, AND MUSICALS, exploring these three powerful cultural forces and the musicals that tackle them - The Rocky Horror Show, Bat Boy, Grease, Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, and many others - discovering what these works reveal about American culture and politics.
Author, director, and composer Scott Miller once again shares his passion for and knowledge of musical theater in this endlessly entertaining and informative look at how musicals have both reflected and adapted to America's changing culture. Eager to respond to the concerns and tastes of the increasingly influential baby-boomer generation, musical theater in the late Sixties began to embrace formerly taboo subjects. From the roaring 1920s (The Wild Party) through the cultural chaos of the 1950s (Grease) and the sexual revolution of the 1960s (Hair) and 1970s (Rocky Horror, I Love My Wife), through the rebirth of the art from in the 1990s (Hedwig, Bat Boy), up through the present (American Idiot, Spring Awakening), Scott Miller's Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, and Musicals explores where we've been and where we might be heading. This is a celebration of the counter-culture taking center stage in the most American of performing arts, and changing it forever.
New Line Theatre is a professional company dedicated to involving the people of the St. Louis region in the exploration and creation of daring, provocative, socially and politically relevant works of musical theatre. New Line Theatre was created in 1991 at the vanguard of a new wave of nonprofit musical theatre just starting to take hold across the country. New Line has given birth to several world premiere musicals over the years and has brought back to life many shows that did not do well in their original New York productions. Altogether, New Line has produced 63 musicals and 5 concerts of theatre songs since 1991. New Line Theatre was recently given its own entry in the latest edition of the prestigious Cambridge Guide to American Theatre. New Line receives funding from the Regional Arts Commission, the Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation, and the Missouri Arts Council. For other information, visit New Line Theatre's full-service website at www.newlinetheatre.com.
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