The theatre and drama of the 1920s reflect a synergy of art, glitter, and glitz--a decade of great mainstream playwrights and a flourishing popular and commercial theatre, but it was also a decade in which discontented artists and a variety of people on the margins of American society could find a means of expressing their views.

Gewitz and Kolb assemble 20 essays that reflect recent scholarship and research, focusing on generally unknown or ignored aspects of the decade: John Howard Lawson's polemics, especially in his most important play, Processional, his proclivity...

The theatre and drama of the 1920s reflects a great synergy of art, glitter, and glitz--a decade of experimentation and incubation for mainstream American playwrights coexisting with important revivals of European playwrights and Shakespeare, a flourishing commercial theatre, and the vibrant worlds of burlesque, musical comedy, Revues and Follies.

The 22 essays gathered by Gewitz and Kolb reflect recent scholarship and research, including several provocative, new readings of the plays of Eugene O'Neill, contrasting essays for and against the significance of Philip Barry, and...