Description
Trade ReviewI found Stacy Wolf's book fascinating and surprising. It not only gave me a fresh perspective on the history of musical theatre, it revealed things to me about my own show I didn't know were there. * Stephen Schwartz *
This book is absolutely brilliant on many levels. Wolf manages, in one stroke, to place the musical's feminine fan base-long recognized but rarely valued-on the same critical plane that its gay male fan base has long occupied. This book truly defies gravity! * Raymond Knapp, Professor of Musicology, UCLA, and author of The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity and The American Musical and the Performance of Personal Identity *
This beautifully written - and desperately needed - feminist history of the Broadway musical is filled with exciting insights, humor, and great affection for the American musical. It's an important and interesting book, one I will read again and again. * Elizabeth L. Wollman, Assistant Professor of Music, Baruch College, The City University of New York, and author of The Theater Will Rock: A History of the Rock Musical, from "Hair" to "Hedwig" *
A valuable work with a strong and captivating feminist point of view. Scholars and serious fans of theater as well as those concerned with women's issues and studies will especially enjoy its detail-filled and imaginative perspective. * Library Journal *
Carefully researched, elegantly written, and methodologically innovative...A rewarding and thoroughly enjoyable book that should appeal to a broad range of readers, especially those interested in the intertwined histories of gender, sexuality, and popular entertainment. * The Journal of American History *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Gender, Genre, and Musical Theatre Chapter One: 1950s Musicals and Queer Female Duets Chapter Two: The Single Woman and the Active Female Body in 1960s Musicals Chapter Three: The Ensemble as Queer "Family" Chapter Four: Women in the 1980s Megamusicals, Humming the Scenery Chapter Five: Musicals in the 1990s-2000s: Female Protagonists, First and Last Numbers, and the Intersectional Performance of Race and Gender Chapter Six: Queer Conventions in the Broadway Musical Wicked Epilogue: Wicked Divas, Musical Theatre, and Internet Girl Fans Endnotes
