Includes bibliographical references and index.

All that jazz -- Everything's been done before -- Where do they come from (and where do they go?) -- Seeing's believing -- People from Jolson to Justin in 85 years -- The art of the possible -- Music makes me -- Music makes me -- With plenty of money -- I get the neck of the chicken -- Turn on the heat -- Painting the clouds: Snow White, South Park, and other ways to animate a musical -- Under my skin: musicals musicals and race, musicals and sexuality -- Put 'em in a box -- Epilogue : Dream dancing.

Insightful, witty, as exuberant as its subject matter, this book offers a fresh, revolutionary take on a uniquely American institution: the movie musical. In a book that is at once history, analysis, investigation, and meditation, noted film historian Richard Barrios takes on the entire musical spectrum, from Al Jolson and The Broadway Melody to hip-hop and Les Misérables. Over nine decades, the musical film has been a cornerstone of the entertainment world, yet its existence has been more erratic that any other type of film. Barrios delves deep into the genre, uncovering what makes it a commercially and artistically successful art form that, despite falling in and out of favor with the American public, has a firm and enduring hold on the American cultural imagination.