Table of contents; list of images; preface; acknowledgements; introduction; part i; the theatre union's 1935 production of brecht's the mother; misconception & misunderstanding; broadway & the depoliticization of epic theatre; part ii; between broadway & ground zero; a new brechtian musical?; virtuosic alienation; part iii; the resistible rise of jerry springer; brecht's "u-effect"; appendix; contributors; index
Summary
Not long after the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, Bertolt Brecht's name was on the lips of many writing about Broadway. Invoked knowingly-but not always knowledgeably-"Brecht" became something between marketing strategy and erudite justification for another season of Broadway musicals, another ignominy endured by the German playwright whose epic theater has only seldom been understood in the United States. To say that Brechtian and Broadway theatrical traditions represent diverge ..
