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(More customer reviews)Harry B. Smith was perhaps the most prolific lyricist and scriptwriter in the early American musical theatre. This biography of him is fun to read and exhaustive in its research. It is part of a series of books on these early neglected figures, all of which do not have footnotes. As a scholar, I thought I would find that frustrating, but the author very clearly indicates his sources in the text, and this procedure suffices perfectly adequately for most purposes. To learn about the man behind early operetta hits, from "Gypsy Love Song" (from The Fortune Teller) to "Yours Is My Heart Alone" (from an adaptation of Lehar's The Land of Smiles), is a great pleasure. Smith also wrote the scripts for many early musical comedies, such as Irving Berlin's Watch Your Step.
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Harry B. Smith was the most prolific writer of librettos for the American musical theatre in history, with nearly half of his 300 works actually opening in New York City. In addition, Smith was instrumental in adapting and popularizing foreign musicals in America, significantly influencing writing and composing styles of American shows. He worked with every major composer in America between 1880 and 1920, and consequently this examination of his work and process is highly instructive of the history of the American musical.
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