Musical Theater and Social Protest Feminism and Racism According to Broadway

My Thesis… Since musical theater is a social document, sexism and racism can be examined in musicals in the context of their times – from the era of Rodgers and Hammerstein to the popular, more contemporary Wicked. Exploring how sexism and racism are exposed, perpetuated, and protested illuminates how theater is a vehicle not just to reflect, but also to transform, society.

“Our Musicals, Ourselves” When I began writing for musical theatre, I firmly believed that what I chose to put onstage had the potential of changing people’s lives. I wrote from the belief that plays and musicals can foster in their audiences a feeling of shared community, thereby combating personal isolation and fear. In theatrical settings, people become receptive, and important lessons about life can be genially imparted from the stage (Jones 1)” Musicals help us understand the context of our time and our history They are deliberately made to appeal to the broadest possible segment of the population SO they tell us a lot about ourselves and our culture

BUT… What about musicals that only entertain/ amuse patrons? EVEN they reveal a social/political slice of life ALL contain assumptions, biases, aspirations, and racial/sexual attitudes when first written and staged Musicals are… Social documents that reveal deeply-held cultural attitudes and beliefs Theatrical vehicles to TRANSFORM (not just report) the times

Who’s the Broadway Audience? Generally white/middle class 20 th century – not yet extremely affluent After WWII – Skyrocketing ticket prices = Broadway as elitist

Who’s Broadway For? Result of rising ticket prices? “Audiences have become wealthier and older. With fewer young people exposed to musicals, the potential audience for musical theatre has begun to shrink. Furthermore, African Americans only comprise a significant portion of Broadway musical audiences for black-oriented shows, whether by black, white, or mixed-race creative teams” (Jones 3).

SO… Socially relevant shows mirrored concerns and lifestyles of middle-class white Americans (the primary audience) WHY? Even if the show is brilliant, if it doesn’t entertain its audience it won’t survive to make back its investment

Examples Rodgers and Hammerstein’s: South Pacific Annie Get Your Gun West Side Story The Wiz Wicked

Revisionism New York Times article, in response to “Annie Get Your Gun” revision… “When today’s audiences pay to gaze at the past, they want a lot more than golden memories; they want to feel as if a tried-and-true form speaks to the contemporary world” “Musicals – perhaps because they are essentially period pieces tied more closely to the pop music and cultural and commercial trends of a given moment – usually do not prove as elastic”

1999 Revised “Annie Get Your Gun” From New York Times … How much can you alter “Annie Get Your Gun” before it is no longer “Annie Get Your Gun”? Does a politically corrected Indian character make it a better musical, or simply more palatable to a wider audience? Is the process of reconfiguration a refinement or a whitewash? “Revision craze” = “purging of material involving racial and sexual stereotypes, an ethnic cleansing of an earlier era’s biases Both “Peter Pan” and “Annie Get Your Gun” revivals got rid of nonsensical Indian dialogues All dependent on time – “What one generation views as cutting edge becomes the next generation’s tired convention.” And many revised shows will become revised.

“Annie Get Your Gun” Music (I’m an Indian, Too”) (The Girl That I Marry) (You Can’t Get a Man With a Gun)

South Pacific “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught” – not written as a message song BUT most explicit statement of concern about learned biases ALSO the potential interracial marriage could not be completed because the male died at the end – did he die only to satisfy censors? According to John Bush Jones “In 1949 it was one thing for a Broadway show to advocate in theory for interracial harmony and even relationships, but it would have been quite another to let the latter actually happen” (152) WAS the integrity of his vision compromised for the sake of commercial success? Usually an antagonist is person – BUT was no longer an actual person, but rather ingrained prejudice and racial bias within characters

South Pacific Music (There Ain’t Nothing Like a Dame) (Gonna Wash that Man Right Out of My Hair) (You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught) Barbara Streisand – You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught AND Children Will Listen (1:16) Westboro Baptist Church example

West Side Story (1957) “West Side Story” is important since it achieves relevant statements through “Musical’s dramatic action and an occasional line or two of lyrics or dialogue, with no overt preaching” First musical to seriously question universality of the American Dream (claimed for BOTH sides it was more of a nightmare) AND showed the prejudice/acceptance motif

BUT…in West Side Story… Early stage versions and film have mainly non-Latino actors in Hispanic roles Updated versions have all-Latino actors and songs sung in Spanish According to NPR, original stage director Jerry Robbins: Brought Method-acting technique to the show “Deliberately tried to foment animosity, antagonism, between the two opposing gangs, both on stage and off stage. They weren’t allowed to eat together. They weren’t supposed to socialize”

West Side Story’s Importance As mainstream pop culture, the show brought awareness, to “huge movement of social change” At first no one would back it since it was: Too depressing Too advanced Too many tritones Too many words in the lyrics Musically, it is this “tritone” quality that indicates indicates instability, restlessness, and tension

West Side Story Music (America – film version) (A Boy Like That – film version) (Somewhere)

Civil Rights Era on Broadway At first Civil Rights were absent from Broadway… BUT in the early ‘70s there were primarily black shows The Wiz Completely black mainstream musical in the 1970s Reinventing “The Wizard of Oz” to access the popularity of “Motown, Soul Train, Afrocentric fashion, and black urban movies” At first…mostly white audience critical/apathetic BUT bypassed traditional press campaign to TV commercial getting black children to ask parents to “ease on down the road” called Broadway SO word of mouth got the black community there and “The Wiz” ran 1,672 performances and then a national tour NOW there was a black audience for Broadway shows that before had not been present

The Wiz’s Impact The Wiz motivated the formation and enactment of a community of black theatergoers and critics who defied the hegemony of white critics and whose resistance underlined the white perspective of mainstream papers and negated the presumption that a white perspective is objective or universal” (Wolf, 115)

The Wiz Music Original “Follow the Yellow Brick Road” (Ease on Down the Road) (The Wiz Live trailer) (Can’t You Feel the Brand New Day – political)

Wicked…Subversive? Can shows as popular as “Wicked” also be considered “protest” while still appealing to such a wide variety of people Oz Women as rulers of good AND bad societies Women chose political activism over love/getting the guy/romantic plot

Wicked Wizard – where I’m from, we believe all sorts of things that aren’t true. We call it…history. (One of the comments was – you could call that politics) A man’s called a traitor or a liberator A rich man’s a thief or philanthropist Is one a crusader or ruthless invader?

Wicked Music “Popular” – social commentary on how to behave so others like you “Wonderful” – commentary on what “history” says “Defying Gravity” – feminist anthem

Works Cited John Bush Jones, Our musicals, ourselves : a social history of the American musical theater Wolf, Stacy “Changed For Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical” “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught”: Reflections on War, Imperialism, and Patriotism in America’s South Pacific “Civil Rights Era on Broadway” New York Times – “Theater; Rewrite a Classic Musical? Whatever Works, Goes”

Questions Can music be a form of social protest/social commentary? If Broadway shows are trying to make money and appeal to a wide variety of audiences, can shows ever truly push the boundaries of social convention? Can a musical’s songs have life outside the context of the show itself?