Donatella Galella, Masi Asare, Jordan Ealey, Saj, H. Kim, Matthew D. Morrison, Fred Moten, Karen Shimakawa, C. Shimizu
{"title":"MT/D, or change: An anti-racist musical theatre reading group","authors":"Donatella Galella, Masi Asare, Jordan Ealey, Saj, H. Kim, Matthew D. Morrison, Fred Moten, Karen Shimakawa, C. Shimizu","doi":"10.1386/smt_00085_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00085_1","url":null,"abstract":"In this roundtable held at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education conference in 2021, the participants discussed the racialized politics of citation in musical theatre studies. Some of the speakers lifted up anti-racist scholarly pieces that have significantly shaped their work: SAJ considered Douglas Jones Jr’s chapter ‘Slavery, performance, and the design of African American theatre’, Jordan Ealey shared lessons from Matthew D. Morrison’s article ‘The sound(s) of subjection: Constructing American popular music and racial identity through Blacksound’, Masi Asare expanded upon Fred Moten’s essay ‘Taste, dissonance, flavor, escape’ to think through sweeping away and stealing away, Donatella Galella applied Karen Shimakawa’s book National Abjection: The Asian American Body Onstage to contemporary yellowface, and Hye Won Kim talked about the influence of Celine Parreñas Shimizu’s book The Hypersexuality of Race: Performing Asian/American Women on Screen and Scene on her own work. Morrison, Moten, Shimakawa and Shimizu reflected on why they wrote those pieces of scholarship and how they understand their research years later. Finally, the co-authors spoke to reasons why scholars situated in musical theatre studies have so rarely cited research in fields like Black and Asian American performance studies and imagined radical possibilities beyond a racist citation framework.","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46066010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘Jesus, the Ark for Today’: Evangelizing through Sight & Sound Theatres’s Noah","authors":"Chelsea Taylor","doi":"10.1386/smt_00075_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00075_1","url":null,"abstract":"Sight & Sound Theatres, a Christian theatre company known for their musical adaptations of stories from the Bible, takes up the mission of evangelizing through musical theatre. While the genre of musical theatre can transform harsh religious messaging into an accessible and entertaining\u0000 form, it can also undermine religious messaging by introducing camp and trivializing supernatural deities. This article examines how Sight & Sound Theatres’s Noah keeps with and breaks musical theatre conventions effectively to evangelize to their audiences.","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42176497","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cultural Identity in British Musical Theatre, 1890‐1939: Knowing One’s Place, Ben Macpherson (2018)","authors":"W. Everett","doi":"10.1386/smt_00080_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00080_5","url":null,"abstract":"Review of: Cultural Identity in British Musical Theatre, 1890‐1939: Knowing One’s Place, Ben Macpherson (2018)London: Palgrave Macmillan, 245 pp.,ISBN 978-1-14759-806-6, h/bk £89.99","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41401338","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rock Star/Movie Star: Power and Performance in Cinematic Rock Stardom, Landon Palmer (2020)","authors":"Eleonora Sammartino","doi":"10.1386/smt_00079_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00079_5","url":null,"abstract":"Review of: Rock Star/Movie Star: Power and Performance in Cinematic Rock Stardom, Landon Palmer (2020)New York: Oxford University Press, 274 pp.,IBSN 978-0-19088-841-1, p/bk £22.99","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47040080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘Welcome to the Rock’: Come from Away as happiness machine","authors":"Grahame Renyk","doi":"10.1386/smt_00074_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00074_1","url":null,"abstract":"Mainstream musicals rely on popular appeal. Even when the content is serious or tragic, the affective experience generated is generally pleasant. Almost by default, they are happy objects ‐ veritable happiness-circulating machines capable of adhering their own pleasant affects\u0000 to other objects, whether physical (e.g. things, bodies) or conceptual (e.g. values, ideals, myths). In this article, I explore Come from Away as a happiness-making machine capable of adhering its own happy affects to a homegrown mythos that imagines Canada (not unproblematically) as\u0000 a welcoming utopia of tolerance and togetherness.","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49507102","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From Heathers to Six: Stealth musicals and the TikTok Broadway archive","authors":"Trevor Boffone","doi":"10.1386/smt_00070_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00070_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores two popular TikTok trends that use sound bites from the original cast recordings of Heathers: The Musical and Six. The ‘Martha Dumptruck in the Flesh’ challenge from Heathers: The Musical and the ‘Yeah That Didn’t Work\u0000 Out’ challenge from Six were, by and large, completely detached from the musicals. TikTokers who engaged with these trends, therefore, likely did not even know that the sound bites came from musicals. These musicals became what I term ‘stealth musicals’, or undercover\u0000 musicals that proliferate on TikTok in ways that are completely removed from the show’s dramaturgy. As stealth musicals, Heathers: The Musical and Six did not just go viral but stayed viral on TikTok. I argue, therefore, that these two musicals became canonical pieces\u0000 of Gen Z culture. With viral canonization, Heathers: The Musical and Six demonstrate how cultural capital accrues in digital spaces and, as a result, sound bites such as ‘Martha Dumptruck in the flesh’ enter into a public life that extends beyond the musicals themselves.\u0000 Indeed, as I propose, quoting ‘Martha Dumptruck in the flesh’ is as synonymous with Gen Z culture as it is with the musical Heathers.","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41751634","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Encounters with ‘the same’ (but different): London Road and the politics of territories and repetitions in verbatim musical theatre","authors":"Demetris Zavros","doi":"10.1386/smt_00076_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00076_1","url":null,"abstract":"Using Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of the ‘refrain’, the article investigates London Road as an example of a ‘minor’ practice in musical theatre, which engages with a tracing and play with ‘territories’ as well as several acts of deterritorialization\u0000 and reterritorialization. These processes are examined both at the level of content (and the thematic considerations of ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ in the building of a community) and form. The performance introduces new relationships and functions between the components/means\u0000 at the musical’s disposal and invites a different type of audience engagement (or ‘encounter’) by destabilizing fixed forms and categories like song/speech, lyric/book, diegetic/non-diegetic, audience/actors, auditorium/stage and ultimately reality/representation. This case\u0000 study exemplifies how the hybrid form of the ‘verbatim musical’ has the potential to mutually deterritorialize both of the genres it brings in dialogue and allows for a new type of engagement with the politics of the musical in the twenty-first century.","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43473523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Presenting research as a libretto","authors":"Melissa Fenton","doi":"10.1386/smt_00071_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00071_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article details a data inscription method I have termed ethnomusical libretto. The method evolved from three years of ethnographic fieldwork examining the workplace culture and practice of the global musical theatre industry. Through the process of analysing and coding data, I\u0000 began to explore the possibility of writing up my data as a libretto, as an effective way to both ‘show’ and ‘tell’ what I had seen and experienced as a participant/observer in the musical theatre industry. I also saw value for writing up ethnographic data as a libretto\u0000 in order to employ it as a device for member checking. This method contributes to a thickening of data and provides not only an alternate way to conceive research findings but also an opportunity to refine and confirm research claims.","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43674754","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Soliman’s legacy: What Mozart has to teach us about race in musical theatre","authors":"B. LaReau","doi":"10.1386/smt_00072_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00072_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article serves to describe and activate conversations about racial representation in the musical theatre by expanding the musical theatre’s traditional boundaries to include Mozart, his operas and his collaborations as origins of the genre. By examining in particular the\u0000 exemplary and understudied life of Angelo Soliman, the Enlightenment’s views on race come into sharp focus, raising the questions: how deep is the gap between fetishization and fascination ‐ and what can theatre practitioners learn from Mozart’s history?","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45386324","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}