Book Review: The New Broadway Song Companion: An Annotated Guide to Musical Theatre Literature by Voice Type and Song Style by David P. DeVenney (Scarecrow Press, Inc. 2009, ISBN 978-0-8108-6943-1)
The New Broadway Song Companion began as a private resource for author and voice teacher David DeVenney and his students. The book—with thousands of song titles from over 300 musicals, including the old and new, the popular and the short-lived, the on- and off-Broadway—is now a resource available to all. Revised and expanded from the previous edition, The Broadway Song Companion, this second edition contains nearly 100 more categorized musicals than the first edition—including some “non-Broadway” musicals because, in the author’s opinion, they have become popular and widely produced (such as Disney’s High School Musical).
Singers interested in crossing over to musical theatre will find this book most useful. At a glance, a singer can find slow ballads, up-tempo ballads, character, funny, jazzy, narrative, rumba, waltz, and march tempo songs. The book will save hours of otherwise difficult research in preparation for an upcoming audition, recital, or show.
The book begins with a “Guide to Use” which is well organized for quick reference. Each show is categorized in alphabetical order by title and includes the composer and lyricist names as well as the date the show was written. Individual songs are then categorized with song title, character name, voice type, range (including any opening sections), and song style. The song styles are taken from three main categories: ballads, up-tempos, and character pieces. Songs may fall into two categories or have tempo changes or fit a certain type of ballad (moving and waltz). DeVenney succeeds at notating all of this in an easy, at-a-glance style.
Several useful indexes at the end of the book make finding the perfect song even easier. The first, “Index to Songs for Solo Voices,” is organized by voice type, tempo type, and character type. Songs are listed under the appropriate category in alphabetical order. The second, “Index to Duets,” is organized by the voice types the duets are written for, such as “Duets for Two Women,” and again by tempo and voice type. Other indexes include “Index to Trios,” “Index to Quartets and Small Ensembles,” “Index to Choruses and Company Numbers,” and “Index to Composers and Lyrics.”
This book will be a welcome addition to a teacher’s studio library. Musical theatre repertoire is a staple for many high school students, and in order to keep up with their passion, teachers must become savvy with the repertoire. I recently experienced this learning curve for musical theatre repertoire in my own teaching. How nice it would have been to have this book in my library during the learning process!
