Studies in Musical Theatre - Volume 14, Issue 1, 2020

The children’s opera Brundibár received fame through performances by Jewish children in the Theresienstadt ghetto from 1943 to 1944. Since its revival in the 1970s, the work has been performed around the world in multiple languages and has been transformed into a best-selling book by Tony Kushner and Maurice Sendak. Used as a tool for Holocaust education, many modern productions emphasize a narrative of cultural resistance as a way of reading the work, transforming Brundibár’s Brechtian agitprop plot of collective action profoundly. In the Sydney production of 2014, a decision was made to stay faithful to the original motives of the composer and librettist, and the production was shaped by ethnographic testimony of those who had witnessed the original performances. This article examines how the historical narrative interacts with the ethnographic and personal encounters in the interpretation and realization of this work. Burdened by a responsibility to historical context, how does ethnography assist in bringing nuance and multi-vocality? In what way does an empathic imperative inform these processes?

In South Korea, musicals are considered as ‘female culture’. Based on recent fieldwork, this essay gives attention to the ways in which female fans project themselves in three common spaces: in dark theatre auditoriums, online fan forums and feminist protests. In each of the three spaces, female musical fans nurture and enact their own version of feminism. I employ the discourse of ‘voyeurism’ and ‘half-visibility’ to understand how young South Korean women navigate patriarchal capitalist society. I ultimately argue that today’s South Korean musicals empower young South Korean women by providing safe spaces for feminism.

In 2004, ethnomusicologist Anne Lederman premiered Spirit of the Narrows, an ethnodrama based on her research in Ojibwe and Métis communities in Manitoba, Canada. Told from the point of view of the researcher, the play – mixing narrative with live fiddling – provides a compelling glimpse into the music tradition of these communities. It is also a fascinating example of ethnomusicological research translated for a non-academic audience. Using Spirit of the Narrows as a case study, this essay considers the challenges and potentials of bringing ethnodrama to ethnomusicology, or alternatively, ethnomusicology to ethnodrama. I argue that, if done with an eye to ethical relationships, ethnodrama can provide a dynamic means of disseminating music research. More importantly, it can engage communities in research and dissemination, in a sense, giving back that which was taken through research.

Joan Littlewood (1914–2002) was a pioneer of theatre directing in the United Kingdom, most famous for her production of Oh What a Lovely War!. This article performs an ethnographic study of Miss Littlewood, a 2018 musical by Sam Kenyon, which documents Littlewood’s life and work using the style of the earlier show. Miss Littlewood’s plot reveals details of Littlewood’s life and work, while its form mirrors the montage techniques that she pioneered in Britain. The article uses interviews and rehearsal observations to document aspects of the process by which Miss Littlewood was developed. It reflects on the tensions that are revealed between that relatively luxurious process and Littlewood’s political and financial realities. Ethnography was an ideal method for documenting this process because it facilitated observation of relationships between the various works and demonstrated the fluidity and creativity of academic writing.

The recreation or re-enactment of twentieth-century avant-garde musical theatre works involves a set of epistemological and methodological issues that can be addressed through practice-based procedures informed by archaeological, ethnographic and experimental perspectives. This article presents a discussion about the relevance of integrating these perspectives, departing from their application in a specific case study, the recreation of Don’t, Juan (1985), an experimental musical theatre work by the Portuguese composer, pianist and percussionist Constança Capdeville (1937–92). This research proposes the blending of archaeology with the living experience of performance as an approach to a reconstruction project, with methods such as performative ethnography, experimental practice and embodied knowledge through performance operating as effective tools.

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to better understand how participation in St. Lawrence University’s (New York, the United States) production of Spring Awakening served as a means of intimate and broader community building. This narrative ethnography investigated the director and a focus group of actors involved in the production of Spring Awakening. Analyses of the data revealed four themes: content, interconnectedness, emotion and vulnerability and magic. St. Lawrence University students welcomed and embraced the language, the music and the subject matter presented to them in the content of Spring Awakening. The willingness with which the students opened up to conversation and community continued to resonate with them in an interconnectedness that seemingly had more depth and more meaning than other productions they have worked on, including other musical theatre productions.

Review of: Palgrave Handbook of Musical Theatre Producers, Laura MacDonald and William A. Everett (eds) (2017)

New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 577 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-13744-029-7, h/bk, USD 239.00

Review of: Boho Days: The Wider Works of Jonathan Larson, J. Collis (2018)

Sheffield: Jonathon Collis, 404 pp.,

ISBN 978-3-00059-113-6, h/bk, $46.00

Review of: Music Direction for the Stage: A View from the Podium, Joseph Church (2015)

New York: Oxford University Press, 392 pp.,

ISBN 978-0-19999-340-6, h/bk, £79.00