Gender, Sex, and Sexuality in Musical Theatre

Description

Critics and fans alike often mistake theatrical song and dance as evoking a sweeping sense of simplicity, heteronormativity, and traditionalism. Nothing drove home this cultural misunderstanding for Kelly Kessler as when a relative insisted she watch the Clint Eastwood-Lee Marvin cinematic transfer of Paddy Chayefsky’s Paint Your Wagon (1969) with a young niece and nephew because it was a ‘sweet movie.’ In the relative’s memory, good old-fashioned singing and dancing—matched with the power of an assumed hegemonic embrace of social norms—far outweighed the whoremongering, alcoholism, wife-selling, and what appears to be narratively sanctioned polyamory.

This collection seeks to trouble such an over-idealized impression of musical theatre. Tackling Rockettes, divas, and chorus boys; hit shows such as Hamilton and Spring Awakening; and lesser-known but ground-breaking gems like Erin Markey’s A Ride on The Irish Cream and Kirsten Childs’s Bella: An American Tall Tale.

Gender, Sex and Sexuality in Musical Theatre: He/She/They Could Have Danced All Night takes a broad look at musical theatre across a range of intersecting lenses such as race, nation, form, dance, casting, marketing, pedagogy, industry, platform-specificity, stardom, politics, and so on. This collection assembles an amazing group of established and emergent musical theatre scholars to wrestle with the complexities of the gendered and sexualized musical theatre form. Gender and desire have long been at the heart of the musical, whether because ‘birds and bees’ (and educated fleas’) were doing it, a farm girl simply couldn’t ‘say no,’ or one’s ‘tits and ass’ were preventing them from landing the part.

An exciting and vibrant collection of articles from the archives of Studies in Musical Theatre, with contributions from Ryan Donovan, Michele Dvoskin, Sherrill Gow, Jiyoon Jung, David Haldane Lawrence, Stephanie Lim, Dustyn Martinich, Adrienne Gibbons Oehlers, Deborah Paredez, Alejandro Postigo, George Rodosthenous, Janet Werther, Stacy Wolf, Elizabeth L. Wollman, Bryan Vandevender and Kelly Kessler, brought together with a newly commissioned piece by Jordan Ealey. All set against the backdrop of Kelly Kessler’s scene-setting introduction.

Excellent potential for classroom and course use on undergraduate and graduate courses in theatre studies, musical studies, women’s and gender studies.

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Belting Away at Binaries – Kelly Kessler

PART 1: EXPLORING AND EXPLODING THE GENDER BINARY ON THE MUSICAL STAGE

1. The Radio City Rockettes and the Making of a Sisterhood – Adrienne Gibbons Oehlers

2. Billy Elliot the Musical: Visual Representations of Working-Class Masculinity and the All-Singing, All-Dancing Bo[d]y – George Rodosthenous

3. Hamilton’s Women – Stacy Wolf

4. Rewriting the American West: Black Feminist (Re)Vision in Bella: An American Tall Tale – Jordan Ealey

5. A-List Drag Queens, Accidental Drag Kings and Illegible Gender Rebels: (Mis)Representations of Trans Experience in Contemporary Musicals – Janet Werther

PART 2: EMBODYING AND EXPLOITING SEX AND SEXUALITY ON AND OFF BROADWAY

6. Chorus Boys: Words, Music and Queerness (c.1900–36) – David Haldane Lawrence

7. Emancipation or Exploitation? Gender Liberation and Adult Musicals in 1970s New York – Elizabeth L. Wollman

8. A Substitute for Love: The Performance of Sex in Spring Awakening – Bryan M. Vandevender

9. If You Were Gay, That’d Be Okay: Marketing LGBTQ+ Musicals from La Cage to The Prom – Ryan Donovan

PART 3: DIVAS DON’T CARE ABOUT NOBODY’S RULES

10. Embracing Excess: The Queer Feminist Power of Musical Theatre Diva Roles – Michelle Dvoskin

11. Stepping Out of Line: (Re)Claiming the Diva for the Dancers of Broadway – Dustyn Martincich

12. Diva Relations in The Color Purple, the 2015 Broadway Revival – Deborah Paredez

13. How Can the Small Screen Contain Her? Television, Genre and the Twenty-First-Century Broadway Diva Onslaught – Kelly Kessler

PART 4: ONSTAGE, OFFSTAGE AND ONLINE: GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL MUSICAL PRACTICE

14. The Queerness of Copla: Musical Hope for the Spanish LGBTQ – Alejandro Postigo

15. Queering Brechtian Feminism: Breaking Down Gender Binaries in Musical Theatre Pedagogical Performance Practices – Sherrill Gow

16. For Progress or Profit: The Possibilities and Limitations of Playing with Gender in Twenty-First-Century Musical Theatre – Stephanie Lim

17. The Right to See and Not Be Seen: South Korean Musicals and Young Feminist Activism – Jiyoon Jung

Notes on Contributors

Sujets

• TV
• Printed Music
• Musicals
• Theater
• Performing Arts
• MUSIC
• Theatre
• Multiple signal classification
• Performance art
• Musical theatre
• Cultural Studies
• Gender studies
• Film

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 21 février 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781789386219
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Gender, Sex, and Sexuality in Musical Theatre
Gender, Sex, and Sexuality in Musical Theatre
_________________________________
He/She/They Could Have Danced All Night
EDITED AND CURATED BY
Kelly Kessler
First published in the UK in 2023 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2023 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright 2023 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or byany means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, orotherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copy editor: MPS Limited
Cover designer: Aleksandra Szumlas
Cover image: Royer Bockus and Tatiana Wechsler in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! , directed by Bill Rauch, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 2018. Photo by Mark Holthusen.
Production manager: Debora Nicosia
Typesetter: MPS Limited
Hardback ISBN 978-1-78938-619-6
ePDF ISBN 978-1-78938-620-2
ePUB ISBN 978-1-78938-621-9
To find out about all our publications, please visit our website. There you can subscribe to our e-newsletter, browse or download our current catalogue and buy any titles that are in print.
www.intellectbooks.com
This is a peer-reviewed publication.
To the queer kids and gender outcasts who found their adolescent homes in the musical .
I was you (and still am) .
Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Belting Away at Binaries
Kelly Kessler
PART 1: EXPLORING AND EXPLODING THE GENDER BINARY ON THE MUSICAL STAGE
1. The Radio City Rockettes and the Making of a Sisterhood
Adrienne Gibbons Oehlers
2. Billy Elliot the Musical: Visual Representations of Working-Class Masculinity and the All-Singing, All-Dancing Bo[d]y
George Rodosthenous
3. Hamilton's Women
Stacy Wolf
4. Rewriting the American West: Black Feminist (Re)Vision in Bella: An American Tall Tale
Bella: An American Tall Tale Jordan Ealey
5. A-List Drag Queens, Accidental Drag Kings and Illegible Gender Rebels: (Mis)Representations of Trans Experience in Contemporary Musicals
Janet Werther
PART 2: EMBODYING AND EXPLOITING SEX AND SEXUALITY ON AND OFF BROADWAY
6. Chorus Boys: Words, Music and Queerness ( c .1900-36)
David Haldane Lawrence
7. Emancipation or Exploitation? Gender Liberation and Adult Musicals in 1970s New York
Elizabeth L. Wollman
8. A Substitute for Love: The Performance of Sex in Spring Awakening
Bryan M. Vandevender
9. If You Were Gay, That'd Be Okay: Marketing LGBTQ+ Musicals from La Cage to The Prom
Ryan Donovan
PART 3: DIVAS DON'T CARE ABOUT NOBODY'S RULES
10. Embracing Excess: The Queer Feminist Power of Musical Theatre Diva Roles
Michelle Dvoskin
11. Stepping Out of Line: (Re)Claiming the Diva for the Dancers of Broadway
Dustyn Martincich
12. Diva Relations in The Color Purple , the 2015 Broadway Revival
Deborah Paredez
13. How Can the Small Screen Contain Her? Television, Genre and the Twenty-First-Century Broadway Diva Onslaught
Kelly Kessler
PART 4: ONSTAGE, OFFSTAGE AND ONLINE: GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL MUSICAL PRACTICE
14. The Queerness of Copla : Musical Hope for the Spanish LGBTQ
Alejandro Postigo
15. Queering Brechtian Feminism: Breaking Down Gender Binaries in Musical Theatre Pedagogical Performance Practices
Sherrill Gow
16. For Progress or Profit: The Possibilities and Limitations of Playing with Gender in Twenty-First-Century Musical Theatre
Stephanie Lim
17. The Right to See and Not be Seen: South Korean Musicals and Young Feminist Activism
Jiyoon Jung
Notes on Contributors
Figures 2.1 : George Maguire as Billy Elliot dancing (Victoria Palace, 2005). Photo: David Scheinmann. 2.2 : Haydn Gwynne as Mrs Wilkinson and company dancing (Victoria Palace, 2005). Photo: David Scheinmann. 2.3 : George Maguire as Billy Elliot dancing against the police (Victoria Palace, 2005). Photo: David Scheinmann. 4.1 : Bella (Ashley D. Kelley) harnesses the possibilities of her embodied power in a confrontation with Bonny Jonny Rakehell (Kevin Massey). In this scene, her booty becomes the source of her strength rather than an object to be sexualized by men ( Bella: An American Tall Tale , courtesy of Joan Marcus). 4.2 : Evoking the power of black feminist collectivity and the continued empowerment of black women rooted in their communities, The Spirit of the Booty (Natasha Yvette Williams), Bella's ancestor and protector, appears to help Bella discover her inner strength ( Bella: An American Tall Tale , courtesy of Joan Marcus). 5.1 : After the relationship between Reagan (Erin Markey) and companion Irish Cream (Becca Blackwell) turns aggressive and then awkwardly amorous, Reagan croons into the microphone while sporting the ‘kiss’ bestowed by Cream, a dashing horse/boat ( A Ride on the Irish Cream . Photograph courtesy of Erin Markey). 5.2 : The at times complicated legibility of queer, non-binary and trans identity and desire comes to the stage as Reagan (Erin Markey) screams while horse/boat Irish Cream (Becca Blackwell) wraps their hooves around their femme companion ( A Ride on the Irish Cream . Photograph courtesy of Erin Markey). 9.1 : This heteronormatively-framed advertisement for La Cage aux Folles celebrating original star Gene Barry's return to the production appeared in the New York Times on 12 January 1986. 9.2 : Unlike its print campaign, Fun Home 's social media connected the show's message to queer-linked contemporary events, as seen in this Instagram post on the day the US Supreme Court made equal marriage the law. Image from Fun Home 's Instagram account, 26 June 2015, USA. 12.1 : The Color Purple original Broadway musical poster (2005). Artist Unknown. TMG – The Marketing Group. 12.2 and 12.3 : The Color Purple Broadway musical revival posters (2015, 2016). Photographer Unknown. Type A Marketing. 13.1 : Angela Lansbury's lovable Jessica Fletcher made Murder She Wrote an audience favorite, thrusting the Broadway diva's iconic Mama Rose, Mame and Mrs Lovett into the rearview mirror ( TV Guide advertisement, 27 October–2 November 1984). 13.2 : The millennial trend of producing one-off musical episodes of fictional television shows created a perfect opportunity for crossover actresses like Spamalot Tony-winner Sara Ramirez to show off her diva chops. Here she blows out ‘The Story’ to the comatose version of her character in Grey's Anatomy 's (2011, Episode ‘Song Beneath the Song’). 14.1 : The Copla Musical 's protagonist La Gitana drawing inspiration from the Spanish folklórica 's gypsy features ( The Copla Musical . Photograph courtesy of Alejandro Postigo). 16.1 : Heralding the ideological impact of its gender-bent casting and narrative reworking, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival posted the heartfelt sentiments of one of its Oklahoma! cast members on its Twitter feed, 17 July 2020, US.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the folks at Intellect for approaching me with this project and allowing me the opportunity to help contribute to the ever-growing body of scholarly work drawing together the inherent links between gender, sex and sexuality and the musical across stages and screens. Gender, Sex, and Sexuality in Musical Theatre: He/She/They Could Have Danced All Night provided me with a wonderful opportunity to comb over and revel in over a decade's worth of material published in Studies in Musical Theatre and (re)discover so much work that had been produced by my colleagues across the field of musical theatre studies. Huge thanks to Jessica Lovett for reaching out to me and working with me throughout. Also, thanks to the copyeditors at Intellect and all of the folks on the backend that made this project come to fruition.
I would also like to give a huge shout out to all of the original Studies in Musical Theatre contributors for their willingness to share their works in this volume, as well as George Burrows and Dominic Symonds for making the journal what it became. I love the idea of giving people's work a second life, as so many articles become lost in the jungle of journal databases. Tremendous thanks to my contributors who created new works for this collection: Ryan Donovan, Jordan Ealey, Stephanie Lim, Alejandro Postigo and Janet Werther. This project came to all of you during the crazy-times that were the COVID-19-shutdown of 2020, something that made everyone's already complicated life even more unruly. I cannot express my gratitude enough for each of you powering through to complete works that truly added amazing breadth to the existing essays. Also, thanks to Bryan Vandevender for being another set of eyes when I simply couldn't wrap my head around things and Elizabeth L. Wollman for her repeated advice and constant willingness to be a sounding board. (I owe you both drinks.) As an interloper from film and television studies, I consider myself incredibly lucky to have snuck into the world of musical theatre studies and found such amazing colleagues. You all know who you are.
And finally, thank you to my friends and family and everyone who put up with me and my overwhelmedness as I pulled through to the completion of this project during the COVID-19-era. As one of the many things I had agreed to do before the world imploded, this was a struggle at times. Far too many pieces of quarantine candy and far too many COVID-19-shutdown chips were eaten while trying to work while also homeschooling quarantined twins. High five to Katy Maher for keeping me sane with virtual support and shared snark. (I'd say hugs, but she knows I have personal space issues.) Huge kudos to my wife Elizabeth for deftly appearing as if she was listening to me when I was rambling about the project and for keeping the kids intact when I disappeared. Her ability to survive me is constantly baff