Her Turn on Stage

The Role of Women in Musical Theatre

Grace Barnes (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

220 Seiten

2015
McFarland & Co Inc (Verlag)
978-0-7864-9861-1 (ISBN)

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Audiences for musical theater are predominantly women, yet shows are frequently created and produced by men. Onstage, female characters are depicted as victims or sex objects and lack the complexity of their male counterparts. Offstage, women are under-represented among writers, directors, composers and choreographers.

While other areas of the arts rally behind gender equality, musical theater demonstrates a disregard for women and an authentic female voice.

If musical theater reflects prevailing societal attitudes, what does the modern musical tell us about the place of women in contemporary America, the UK and Australia? Are women deliberately kept out of musical theater by men jealously guarding their territory or is the absence of women a result of the modernization of the genre? Based on interviews with successful female performers, writers, directors, choreographers and executives, this book offers a unique female viewpoint on musical theater today.

Grace Barnes is a director/playwright who has worked as an associate or resident director on productions of My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof, The Threepenny Opera, Into the Woods, Sunset Boulevard, The Witches of Eastwick, Martin Guerre, West Side Story, and Guys and Dolls in the UK, Germany and Australia. She lives in Sydney, Australia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Preface 1

The Interviewees 3

Introduction: How to Handle a Woman 7

1. Superboy and the Invisible Girl: The Lack of Women in Creative Positions 15

2. Loving You Is Not a Choice: Women as Martyrs to Heterosexual Love 41

3. He’s No Good, but I’m No Good Without Him: Great Roles for Women? 63

4. If a Girl Isn’t Pretty: Male Gaze and the Musical 85

5. It’s Not Just for Gays Anymore! The Influence of Gay Culture on Musical Theatre 109

6. Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man? Difference and the Musical 130

7. A Secretary Is Not a Toy: Revivals and the Contemporary Audience 150

8. New Ways to Dream 179

Selected Bibliography 203

Index 205

Zusatzinfo	bibliography, index
Verlagsort	Jefferson, NC
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	299 g
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Musik ► Klassik / Oper / Musical
	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Theater / Ballett
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
ISBN-10	0-7864-9861-7 / 0786498617
ISBN-13	978-0-7864-9861-1 / 9780786498611
Zustand	Neuware