Gender, Sex, and Sexuality in Musical Theatre: He/She/They Could Have Danced All Night

Gender, Sex, and Sexuality in Musical Theatre: He/She/They Could Have Danced All Night
by: Kelly Kessler (Editor)
Publisher: Intellect Ltd
Publication Date: 2023/2/3
Language: English
Print Length: 350 pages
ISBN-10: 1789386195
ISBN-13: 9781789386196
Book Description
Established and emerging musical theater scholars wrestle with the complexities of the gendered and sexualized musical theater form. Critics and fans alike often mistake theatrical song and dance as simplistic, heteronormative, and traditional. This collection troubles this over-idealized notion of musical theatre, tackling divas, chorus boys, and the Rockettes; hit shows such as Hamilton and Spring Awakening; and lesser-known but groundbreaking gems like Erin Markey’s A Ride on The Irish Cream and Kirsten Childs’s Bella: An American Tall Tale. The book takes a broad look at musical theater across a range of intersecting lenses including race, nation, form, dance, casting, marketing, pedagogy, industry, stardom, politics, and platform. Undermining the musical form’s conservative façade, scholars drive home the fact that gender and desire have long been at the heart of the musical. This exciting and vibrant collection of articles takes sex, sexuality, and gendered complexity out of the musical’s liner notes and back above the marquee.
About the Author
Established and emerging musical theater scholars wrestle with the complexities of the gendered and sexualized musical theater form. Critics and fans alike often mistake theatrical song and dance as simplistic, heteronormative, and traditional. This collection troubles this over-idealized notion of musical theatre, tackling divas, chorus boys, and the Rockettes; hit shows such as Hamilton and Spring Awakening; and lesser-known but groundbreaking gems like Erin Markey’s A Ride on The Irish Cream and Kirsten Childs’s Bella: An American Tall Tale. The book takes a broad look at musical theater across a range of intersecting lenses including race, nation, form, dance, casting, marketing, pedagogy, industry, stardom, politics, and platform. Undermining the musical form’s conservative façade, scholars drive home the fact that gender and desire have long been at the heart of the musical. This exciting and vibrant collection of articles takes sex, sexuality, and gendered complexity out of the musical’s liner notes and back above the marquee. Read more