This book examines the progress of the British musical in the twentieth century as it struggled to find an identity, stepping out of the shadow of its American counterpart. With a wealth of contemporary photographs and memorabilia, it looks at the contribution of key figures - from Ivor Novello to Lionel - in lively and engaging prose.A Tanner's Worth of Tune is the first book to be written on the post-war British musical, and the first major assessment of the British musical for a quarter of a century, reviving interest in a vast archive of musicals that have been dismissed to the footnotes of theatrical history. This timely reappraisal of the genre and its social background, before the "international" British musicals began appearing in the 1970s, argues for a radical understanding of the shows and their writers, and a rethinking of our attitude towards them. The musical plays of Ivor Novello and Noel Coward - both pre- and post-war - are discussed in detail, as are the two composer