A Cole Porter Companion eds. by Don M. Randel, Matthew Shaftel, and Susan Forscher Weiss (review)

Without question, Cole Porter made significant contributions to musical theater. His innovations included strong female leads and the practice of the "show-within-a-show," replete with humor and pop culture references. But the composer-artist's output extended beyond musicals to include a variety of genres that reflected his environment and different career opportunities at given points in time. A Cole Porter Companion examines the biography and dissects many of the titular figure's musical works. The volume opens with discussions of Porter's childhood musical education, years studying at Yale, travels around Europe, and his earlier and later works. It considers family, artists, and relationships, and how those influences affected his musical development.

Edited by three scholars (Don M. Randel, Matthew Shaftel, and Susan Forscher Weiss), the Companion, with a foreword by composer William Bolcom, contains seventeen chapters by authors (including James Hepokoski and Cliff Eisen, among others) from a variety of academic backgrounds. They represent such fields as musical theater, popular music, music theory, archival studies, and composition, allowing for many different scholastic approaches to effectively frame discussions that are enriched by supplemental materials. The book also includes sections or passages devoted to Porter's lesser-known and less-successful works.

Remembered primarily for the musicals Anything Goes (1934) and Kiss Me, Kate (1948), Porter had a much more extensive resume that delved into opera, ballet, piano music, and songs. Contributors to the Companion describe these works but also acknowledge that Porter's wealth, exposure to the arts, and interaction with established theatrical figures eased his entrance to Broadway, which differentiates him from many of his contemporaries, who often struggled to gain traction.

Four overarching sections divide the volume. The first centers on Porter's life as well as some of his oeuvre; the second focuses on various people and ideas that influenced his compositional approach, and on his history as a performer; the third discusses selected works and criticism in more detail; and the last considers materials useful for studying the composer and his work. The chapters vary in their approaches (historical and narrative, theoretical, critical, and methodical) to reflect the nature of the section in which the chapter is included. The first section is arranged chronologically, and while the other individual chapters also proceed in a linear fashion, the overall study is organized primarily by topic.

While they consider Porter's most famous shows, contributors also discuss many of his other works, including his ballet, Within the Quota (1923), several of the stand-alone songs (such as "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" and "You'd Be So Easy to Love"), and even the projects that received less acclaim, particularly the musical You Never Know (1938). Examining the problems of that musical provides additional insight into Porter's interactions with management and other members of a creative team and demonstrates the impact that disagreements between the personalities involved—and the lack of communication about developments and changes to the production—might have had on Porter's contributions to a show.

The volume further illustrates the vast network of people with whom Porter had contact throughout his career. Several contributors discuss (though sparingly) his relationship with his wife, Linda Thomas, also taking into consideration his family, his colleagues at school and in Europe, and those with whom he collaborated on his theatrical projects. The authors take great care to give background on certain figures that reinforces the extent of their influence on Porter. Dropping names that readers might recognize—like actor Monty Wooley, actress and interior designer Elsie de Wolfe, and composer Darius Milhaud, among others—not only helps to better affix Porter's whereabouts at given points in his timeline, but also serves to demonstrate how and why his works and career developed as...