Studies in Musical Theatre - Volume 11, Issue 1, 2017

This study traces the reception history of the song ‘Tomorrow Belongs to Me’ from Cabaret (1966). The dramaturgical context of the song, Kander and Ebb’s pastiche style, Lotte Lenya’s involvement and Bob Fosse’s film adaptation have all contributed to the song’s re-contextualization and perception as an authentic Nazi hymn. Despite its origin as a show tune by two gay, Jewish Broadway veterans, artists from the Rechtsrock music scene have claimed the song. Drawing on Ingrid Monson’s concepts of ‘perceptual agency’ and ‘intermusicality’, this article reconciles different readings of the song lyrics. The complete liberation of the text from authorial intention in this case study raises important questions about reader agency, forms of censorship and the role of the artist.

Among the multitude of community-based theatre groups in Los Angeles, two wellknown theatres continually transgress traditional boundaries of race, culture, and identity: East West Players, which places the Asian American front and centre, and Deaf West Theatre, which features both deaf and hearing actors onstage together. Functioning together within the larger national theatre movement towards diversity, both theatres foregrounded counter-narratives to the prevailing national discourse in 2008 and 2009, staging stark versions of the same show – Pippin – and turning a Broadway production originally set in the Middle Ages into very modern, relevant re-appropriations. Although the choice of source material seems coincidental, a closer examination reveals that Asian American and Deaf communities share similar struggles and experiences, and Pippin echoes this same search for belonging; after all, not until the mid-twenty-first century did both communities begin to find their voice in society. This article explores how Deaf West’s and East West Players’ adaptations of Pippin reflect LA’s cultural diversity and the challenges that the Deaf and Asian American communities still face today. Furthermore, this article provides an understanding of how musical adaptations intentionally disrupt and subvert current notions of national privilege and identity in America.

The 2011 musical The Book of Mormon has been widely recognized for its inclusion of intertextual references. From nods to Star Wars and The Lion King to Bye, Bye Birdie and The Music Man, the production fashions a bricolage of references to a diverse collection of existing texts from across a range of media. One primary source of such referencing, and the focus of this article, is the canon of musicals of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Although the genealogy between The Book of Mormon and the often comforting musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein is not an obvious one, this article analyzes the manner in which the production parallels both The Sound of Music (1959) and The King and I (1951), in terms of narrative in the former, and in terms of orientalist depictions in the latter. In doing so, it explores the production’s reliance on existing materials to put forward the claim that intertextuality is central to an audience’s interpretation and reception of this popular musical.

This rhetorical analysis examines the production script of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical through the lenses of second-wave feminism, third-wave feminism, and post-feminism. Based on the life of American singer/songwriter Carole King, Beautiful focuses on the triumphs and tribulations of King’s career as a songwriter in the 1960s New York Brill Building, as well as King’s personal life, including her relationship with her spouse/lyricist Gerry Goffin. Through this analysis, we explore how Beautiful’s characters Carole King and Cynthia Weil embody elements of second and third-wave feminism, and suggest that Beautiful: The Carole King Musical conveys an overall empowerment message that is written for a post-feminist audience, given King’s and Weil’s empowerment through individual choices rather than through feminist activism. We conclude that this utopian post-feminist message may be problematic for a twenty-first-century audience in that it fails to acknowledge women’s current career struggles.

El Rey León, book by Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi, Spanish translation by Jordi Galceran, music and lyrics by Elton John and Tim Rice, music and additional lyrics by Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Julie Ta ymor and Hans Zimmer, directed by Julie Ta ymor, Teatro Lope de Vega, Madrid, Spain, 17 January 2017

Pacific Overtures, book by John Weidman, lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim, directed by John Doyle, Classic Stage Company, New York, 15 April 2017

Sunday in the Park with George, book by James Lapine, lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim, directed by Sarna Lapine, Hudson Theatre, New York, 14 April 2017

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, book by Hugh Wheeler, lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim, directed by Bill Buckhurst, Barrow Street Theatre, New York, 16 April 2017

British Musical Theatre Since 1950, Robert Gordon, Olaf Jubin and Millie Taylor (2016) London: Bloomsbury, 274 pp., ISBN: 9781472584373, h/bk; ISBN: 9781472584366, p/bk, £21.99; ISBN: 9781472584397, ePDF; ISBN: 9781472584380, ePub

A Cole Porter Companion, Don M. Randel, Matthew Shaftel and Susan Forscher Weiss (eds) (2016) Urbana, Chicago and Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 372 pp., ISBN: 9780252040092, h/bk, 9780252081583; p/bk, $34.95

Stephen Sondheim and the Reinvention of the American Musical, Robert L. McLaughlin (2016) Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 301 pp., ISBN: 9781496808554, h/bk, $65