{"title":"Classic Musicals","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eJourney through the musicals that helped define Broadway and the West End, featuring timeless stories, unforgettable songs and legendary creative partnerships that continue to delight audiences today.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-the-forum","title":"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum","description":"\u003cp\u003eBased - very loosely - on the plays of Plautus, A Funny Thing...ran for three years on Broadway with Zero Mostel as the cowardly slave, Pseudolus. The first British production, with Frankie Howerd, ran almost as long and spawned the TV series Up Pompeii! A Funny Thing...was only Sondheim's third musical and the first for which he wrote the score as well as the lyrics. On the first two, West Side Story and Gypsy, he had written lyrics only. It opened on Broadway in May 1962 and ran for 964 performances.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fourth Wall Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57995343200591,"sku":"9781854591456","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1006\/6028\/1679\/files\/9781854591456.jpg?v=1781953072"},{"product_id":"rodgers-hammersteins-carousel-the-complete-book-and-lyrics-of-the-broadway-musical-applause-libretto-library","title":"Rodgers \u0026 Hammerstein's Carousel: The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Broadway Musical","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn a Maine coastal village toward the end of the 19th century, swaggering, carefree carnival barker Billy Bigelow captivates and marries naive millworker Julie Jordan. Billy loses his job just as he learns that Julie is pregnant, and – desperately intent upon providing a decent life for his family – he is coerced into being an accomplice to a robbery. Caught in the act and facing the certainty of prison, he takes his own life and is sent “up there.” Billy is allowed to return to earth for one day 15 years later, and he encounters the daughter he never knew. She is a lonely, friendless teenager, her father's reputation as a thief and bully having haunted her throughout her young life. How Billy instills a sense of hope and dignity in both the child and her mother is a dramatic testimony to the power of love. It's easy to understand why, of all the shows they created, Carousel was Rodgers and Hammerstein's personal favorite.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fourth Wall Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57995464835407,"sku":"9781495056581","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1006\/6028\/1679\/files\/9781495056581.jpg?v=1781953225"},{"product_id":"rodgers-hammersteins-the-king-and-i-the-complete-book-and-lyrics-of-the-broadway-musical-applause-libretto-library","title":"Rodgers \u0026 Hammerstein's The King and I: The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Broadway Musical","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe King and I opened on Broadway on March 29, 1951. The musical is based on a 1944 novel by Margaret Landon, Anna and the King of Siam, which in turn was adapted from the real-life reminiscences of Anna Leonowens, as recounted in her own books, The English Governess at the Siamese Court and The Romance of the Harem.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is 1862 in Siam when an English widow, Anna Leonowens, arrives with her young son at the Royal Palace in Bangkok, having been summoned by the King to serve as tutor to his many children and wives. The King is largely considered to be a barbarian by those in the West, and he seeks Anna's assistance in changing his image, if not his ways. With both keeping a firm grip on their respective traditions and values, Anna and the King grow to understand and, eventually, respect one another in a truly unique love story. Along with the dazzling score, the incomparable Jerome Robbins ballet The Small House of Uncle Thomas is one of the all-time marvels of the musical stage.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fourth Wall Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57995464802639,"sku":"9781495056093","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1006\/6028\/1679\/files\/9781495056093.jpg?v=1781953225"},{"product_id":"the-sound-of-music-the-complete-book-and-lyrics-of-the-broadway-musical-applause-libretto-library","title":"The Sound of Music: The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Broadway Musical","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe final collaboration between Rodgers \u0026amp; Hammerstein was destined to become the world's most beloved musical. When a postulant proves too high-spirited for the religious life, she is dispatched to serve as governess for the seven children of a widowed naval captain. Her growing rapport with the youngsters, coupled with her generosity of spirit, gradually captures the heart of the stern captain, and they marry. Upon returning from their honeymoon they discover that Austria has been invaded by the Nazis, who demand the captain's immediate service in their navy. The family's narrow escape over the mountains to Switzerland on the eve of World War II provides one of the most thrilling and inspirational finales ever presented in the theatre. The motion picture version remains the most popular movie musical of all time.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fourth Wall Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57995574575439,"sku":"9781423490791","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1006\/6028\/1679\/files\/9781423490791.jpg?v=1781953403"},{"product_id":"oklahoma-the-complete-book-and-lyrics-of-the-broadway-musical-applause-libretto-library","title":"Oklahoma!: The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Broadway Musical","description":"\u003cp\u003eRodgers \u0026amp; Hammerstein's first collaboration remains, in many ways, their most innovative, having set the standards and established the rules of musical theatre still being followed today. Set in a Western Indian territory just after the turn of the century, the high-spirited rivalry between the local farmers and cowboys provides the colorful background against which Curly, a handsome cowboy, and Laurey, a winsome farm girl, play out their love story. Although the road to true love never runs smooth, with these two headstrong romantics holding the reins, love's journey is as bumpy as a surrey ride down a country road. That they will succeed in making a new life together we have no doubt, and that this new life will begin in a brand-new state provides the ultimate climax to the triumphant Oklahoma!\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fourth Wall Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57995577426255,"sku":"9781423490562","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1006\/6028\/1679\/files\/9781423490562.jpg?v=1781953406"},{"product_id":"fiddler-on-the-roof-based-on-sholom-aleichems-stories","title":"Fiddler on the Roof: Based on Sholom Aleichem's Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe full text and complete lyrics, as well as photographs from the original production. “One of the great works of the American musical theatre. It is darling, touching, beautiful, warm, funny and inspiring. It is a work of art.” –John Chapman, Daily News\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fourth Wall Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57995577491791,"sku":"9780879101367","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1006\/6028\/1679\/files\/9780879101367.jpg?v=1781953406"},{"product_id":"south-pacific-the-complete-book-and-lyrics-of-the-broadway-musical-the-applause-libretto-library","title":"South Pacific: The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Broadway Musical","description":"\u003cp\u003eMusic by Richard Rodgers\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBook by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAdapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWinner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony for Best Musical, South Pacific flourished as the golden musical of Broadway's post-WWII golden era. Nearly 60 years after its 1949 premiere, South Pacific returned to Broadway in Lincoln Center Theater's glorious Tony-winning production, setting box-office records and bringing this timely and timeless musical to new generations. With a score by Rodgers \u0026amp; Hammerstein and a libretto by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan, based on James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Tales of the South Pacific, this landmark musical combines compassionate love stories with the saga of a world at war. Richly developed characters are faced with life-changing moments in a complex world, their thoughts and yearnings powerfully expressed in the lyrics to such songs as “This Nearly Was Mine ” “Younger Than Springtime ” and “Some Enchanted Evening.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fourth Wall Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58290543755599,"sku":"9781480355545","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1006\/6028\/1679\/files\/9781480355545.jpg?v=1784808788"},{"product_id":"me-and-my-girl","title":"Me and My Girl","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Bill Snibson, a Lambeth costermonger, is revealed to be the new Earl of Hareford and his newly-discovered artistocratic relations are horrified. Bringing him to Hareford Hall, they attempt to educate Bill into the ways of the gentry and to separate him from his cockney girlfriend Sally\"--\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fourth Wall Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58310238536015,"sku":"9780573081026","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1006\/6028\/1679\/files\/9780573081026.jpg?v=1784978838"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1006\/6028\/1679\/collections\/classicmusical.webp?v=1785135480","url":"https:\/\/fourthwallbookshop.co.uk\/collections\/classic-musicals.oembed","provider":"Fourth Wall Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}