Sigma Alpha Iota

28 Spring 2026 • sai-national.org Bk Reviews WOMEN WRITING MUSICALS: THE LEGACY THAT THE HISTORY BOOKS LEFT OUT Jennifer Ashley Tepper Applause Theater & Cinema Books, 2024 J ennifer Ashley Tepper's new book is a thoroughly researched, fascinating reference book on women who have been involved in creating musicals as writers, lyricists, or composers. It opens with a comprehensive introduction in which Tepper explains the criteria she used for inclusion. She wanted the book to focus on women who were prominently credited with a musical and not necessarily every woman who happened to be involved with them. She addresses the changing styles and practices throughout the history of Broadway as reflected in the lives of the women she writes about, as well as the paucity of women of color and the changing attitudes to the participation of women in this genre. I found Tepper's opening words to be quite helpful in laying out what she intended to do with the book as well as clarifying how societal changes over time affected all aspects of the lives of women on Broadway. The bulk of the book consists of over 300 individual name entries. Organized according to decade beginning in 1900, each decade has its own chapter, and within each chapter, name entries are organized chronologically according to the year of that person's first musical to appear on Broadway or Off- Broadway. The reader learns interesting facts, like in 1793, Ann Julia Hatton was the first woman in the United States to be credited with writing a libretto, for Needs Must; or, The Ballad Singers; or that Jeanine Tesori (active 1990s–present) is, to date, the most honored woman composer in the history of Broadway, receiving two Tony Awards and many nominations for Grammy Awards and Pulitzer Prizes. The book concludes with a helpful index of musicals arranged according to opening date, including many titles from the 2020s (although the name entries do not include writers from this decade). An index also aids in finding specific titles or names. This is the type of book that can be read straight through; however, it is just as useful for casual browsing in a non-linear fashion. Grounded in exhaustive scholarship, Women Writing Musicals is a must-have for the Broadway enthusiast as well as anyone who wants to be educated further about the accomplishments of women in music. UNSTAGED GRIEF: MUSICALS AND MOURNING IN MIDCENTURY AMERICA Jake Johnson University of Illinois Press, 2025 U nstaged Grief presents a deeply philosophical treatment of mid- twentieth century musicals written for television or film. Jake Johnson explores the ways this musical form expressed the grief our nation endured as it mourned in the aftermath of two world wars and irreparable societal changes, ending the only way of life Americans had known. The book begins with two chapters that are important for understanding Johnson's perspective and his methodology. "How to Process This Book" and "Grief Hides" summarize what the author hopes the reader will take away from the book. He concludes his introduction stating that "grief is a collective experience" and an observation that the midcentury musicals he analyzes have a lot to tell Americans living in the present day. Concurrent with the end of the mid- twentieth century "Golden Age" of musicals was the release of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's influential book On Death and Dying, which Johnson uses as a framework. Divided into five chapters that reflect Kübler-Ross's five stages of grief (Denial and Isolation, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance), the book examines five musicals that were written to be "unstaged," that is, performed on a screen. Titles include Stephen Sondheim's Evening Primrose (1966); Seven Brides for Seven Brothers by Gene de Paul and Johnny Mercer (1954); and the jukebox musical The Singing Nun (1966), which included music by Jeannine Deckers (on whose life it was based) and Harry Sukman. Especially interesting are Johnson's comparisons with other contemporaneous cultural products such as paintings, advertising and media images, and other music in order to delve into what these screen musicals have to say about how Americans grappled with the changing zeitgeist. He reinforces his conclusions with written sources from the time periods in which the musicals were presented. Although the book is rather brief (the main text is only 125 pages), it is a profound and thought-provoking look at what music, even "lighter" music, can say about the culture in which it was created. Johnson concludes that, although grief lies beneath the surface of these musicals, ultimately, endings that are mourned create space for hope. CELLO: A JOURNEY THROUGH SILENCE TO SOUND Kate Kennedy Pegasus Books, 2024 Part memoir, part research narrative, Kate Kennedy's Cello presents an absorbing account of her attempts to locate four cellos that belonged to performers who deserve more attention, whose lives were affected irreparably by various obstacles or

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