David Payne-Carter - Gower Champion: Dance and American Musical Theatre (Contributions in Drama and Theatre Studies)

Cover

Page i

Gower Champion

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DANCE AND AMERICAN MUSICAL THEATRE

DAVID PAYNE-CARTER

Edited by

BROOKS MCNAMARA and STEVE NELSON

Foreword by MARGE CHAMPION

Contributions in Drama and Theatre Studies, Number 87

LIVES OF THE THEATRE

JOSH BEER, CHRISTOPHER INNES, and SIMON WILLIAMS, Series Advisers

Greenwood Press

Westport, Connecticut London

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Payne-Carter, David, 19481991.

Gower Champion : dance and American musical theatre / David Payne
Carter ; edited by Brooks McNamara and Steve Nelson ; foreword by
Marge Champion.

p. cm.(Contributions in drama and theatre studies, ISSN
01633821 ; no. 87. Lives of the theatre)

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0313304513 (alk. paper)

1. Champion, Gower, 19211980. 2. DancersUnited States
Biography. 3. ChoreographersUnited StatesBiography.
4. Theatrical producers and directorsUnited StatesBiography.

I. McNamara, Brooks. II. Nelson, Stephen, 1952 . III. Title.
IV. Series: Contributions in drama and theatre studies ; no. 87.
V. Series: Contributions in drama and theatre studies. Lives of the
theatre.

GV1785.C463P39 1999

792.8'2'092

[B]dc21 9821954

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.

Copyright 1999 by New York University

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 9821954

ISBN: 0313304513

ISSN: 01633821

First published in 1999

Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881

An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.

Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.481984).

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Every reasonable effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright materials in this book,
but in some instances this has proven impossible. The editors and publisher will be glad to
receive information leading to more complete acknowledgments in subsequent printings of the
book and in the meantime extend their apologies for any omissions.

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Lives of the Theatre is designed to provide scholarly introductions to important periods and movements in the history of world theatre from the earliest instances of recorded performance through to the twentieth century, viewing the theatre consistently through the lives of representative theatrical practitioners. Although many of the volumes will be centred upon playwrights, other important theatre people, such as actors and directors, will also be prominent in the series. The subjects have been chosen not simply for their individual importance, but because their lives in the theatre can well serve to provide a major perspective on the theatrical trends of their eras. They are therefore either representative of their time, figures whom their contemporaries recognised as vital presences in the theatre, or they are people whose work was to have a fundamental influence on the development of theatre, not only in their lifetimes but after their deaths as well. While the discussion of verbal and written scripts will inevitably be a central concern in any volume that is about an artist who wrote for the theatre, these scripts will always be considered in their function as a basis for performance.