"Recommended." --Choice

"Drawing on a vast and previously unexplored gold mine of archival materials, Magee brilliantly shapes fresh perspectives on key shows by Irving Berlin, delivering a text that is simultaneously erudite and accessible." --Carol Oja, William Powell Mason Professor of Music, Harvard University

"An outstanding account of one of the leading composers of the Broadway and Hollywood musical. Magee has an unrivaled command of the sources, and offers important new critical approaches to this music in its theatrical contexts: the benefits are clear in his treatment of Annie Get Your Gun. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in American musical theater of the mid twentieth century." --Tim Carter, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, author of Oklahoma! The Making of an American Musical

"An astonishingly rich book. Everything about it is appealing. The research is prodigious; the cultural analysis fresh and compelling. Like Berlin himself, Magee makes show business come alive, from the first song to the last." --Rose Rosengard Subotnik, Professor of Music Emerita, Brown University

"One of the glories of Magee's book is the sheer abundance of fascinating detail." --Jewish Journal

"[A] very welcome book, the first to focus on the span of Berlin's career in American musical theatre ... Drawing on extensive archival resources, Magee includes both musicological and literary analysis along with the sociological setting with a thoroughness that often enlightens." --Times Literary Supplement

"Thanks to Magee and Sears as well as to other scholars, Irving Berlin's ever-trenchant Jewish inspiration continues to be revealed as a major aspect of his mighty achievement." --The Forward

"A fine addition to an already burgeoning section of a theater lover's bookshelf." --DC Theatre Scene

"Offers a unique perspective on the history of American musical theatre from World War
I to the early 1960s, and presents an immensely valuable portrait of a major creative figure whose pre-World War II shows have proven difficult to insert into the established narratives of pre-Rodgers and Hammerstein musical theatre." --Theatre Journal

"Extremely informative and engaging...Yet another fine example of the high quality material being offered by Oxford University Press's Broadway Legacies Series. Not only does this text offer a fresh analytical look at Irving Berlin's music and his significant role in American musical theater, it is also an important contribution to our understanding of American musical theater history as a whole." --Notes