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Studies in Musical Theatre - Current Issue
Volume 18, Issue 2, 2024
- Editorial
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- Articles
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What’s race got to do with it?: ‘Racialized voice’ and ‘vocalized race’ in Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
More LessThis article reflects on the interplay between voice and the ‘racial imagination’ in Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. Drawing upon an interpretive study of the play, encompassing both its literary and musical elements, as well as my experience working at Aldwych Theatre in London’s West End between late November 2018 and early May 2019, this ethnomusicological study aims to evaluate the reception of the show among the general public and Front-of-House co-workers. The article also considers the notions of ‘racialized voice’ and ‘vocalized race’ in order to address some of the challenges that arise from the interpretive discrepancies between voice, timbre and ‘racial imagination’.
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Marketing a (high school) musical on TikTok
More LessThis article explores the intersections between TikTok, musical theatre and youth cultures. Since its international debut in 2017, TikTok has become closely associated with teenagers and twenty-somethings who use the social media platform as a critical site to create, present and experience identities and generational culture at large. Musical theatre has been central to this cultural work. Teenage theatre makers, for example, use TikTok as a marketing tool that can be replicated by professional theatre companies and productions. I present an autoethnographic account of my work with high school students to market an all-school production of the musical Grease and use the experience to question the ways emerging digital platforms such as TikTok inform new, accessible ways of collaborating, experiencing, appreciating, conceptualizing and documenting musical theatre.
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Catch the references if you can: Marc Shaiman and stylistic pastiche
By Nick BraaeThis article explores Marc Shaiman’s use of stylistic pastiche in Catch Me If You Can. Building on previous studies of style imitation in musical theatre, I develop a model for analysing different forms of pastiche. This model categorizes instances of pastiche according to the specificity of the stylistic reference, the function of the pastiche and how the pastiche is integrated into the song. Each component of the model is illuminated through a selection of examples. In Catch Me If You Can, I argue that Shaiman tends to use intra-opus (song) references in order to enhance the lyrical and narrative content, while his broader style references tend to be used for setting and reinforcing aspects of time and place. I conclude with the suggestion that this model could be deployed on other musicals. This will lead to a better understanding of how Shaiman’s practices align or deviate from other composers who engage with this widespread technique.
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‘If I were at peace, I wouldn’t be here’: Staging incarceration’s transgenerational, transnational ghosts and memory in Jay Kuo’s Allegiance
By Emry SottileWhile a majority of the Second World War-based musicals tend to glorify America’s heroism and downplay or ignore its injustices, Jay Kuo’s (2015) musical Allegiance centres on the unlawful incarceration of over one hundred and twenty thousand Japanese American civilians held in American concentration camps during the war, which is a history that many Americans continue not to be aware of. Through foregrounding Jessica Nakamura’s framework of response-ability, this article considers the ways Allegiance activates it, through the use of spectral embodiment as a means to engage ghosts of Japanese diasporic war memory, especially as it relates to the portrayal of the historical figure Mike Masaoka and a staging of the Hiroshima bombing. Allegiance’s staging of ghosts is similarly interrogated within a musical where unsettled personal trauma conjures ghosts of the past that must be settled by characters like the protagonist, Sammy Kimura, who enters a dialogic relationship with them. Through analysing press materials, onstage performances, interviews and documentary content, this article highlights how transnational connections and transgenerational response-ability are staged to help cope with and remember Japanese and Japanese American experiences. It similarly discusses how the musical form aided and inhibited the show’s meaning to and resonance with audiences throughout Allegiance’s production history. Through settling and unsettling the dead, this article considers how Allegiance enshrines personal, communal and national memories about wartime incarceration into a piece of art that serves educational and reparative purposes for the production companies and audiences who experienced the show on and off-Broadway.
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That musical politic: Musical theatre citations and satire in the Trump era
By Samuel YatesThis article amplifies the intersection of musical theatre and political discourse during Donald Trump’s presidency by working against Trump’s imperative that musical theatre be a ‘safe’ art form. Rather than evaluating how Trump identifies with and mobilizes musical theatre numbers from Broadway’s megamusicals era, I assess how performers and multimedia artists critique Trump through musical theatre citation. In doing so, I argue that musicals, as a pervasive and emotionally resonant art form, serve as an effective vehicle for satire and political commentary in the digital era. This study tracks how Broadway artists like Patti LuPone leveraged community star power to challenge Trump’s rhetoric and actions, while performers like Randy Rainbow created online spoofs of well-known musical numbers to chronicle contemporary politics and inspire direct voting action. Finally, it moves to paratheatrical art in the work of graffiti artist TABBY, who used iconic musical imagery in pieces like The Lying King to appraise Trump’s political character. By recontextualizing musical numbers within political events and exploring their use in both supportive and critical contexts, I underscore the enduring influence and democratic potential of musical theatre in shaping and reflecting cultural and political narratives.
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- Reviews
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Seriously Mad: Mental Distress and the Broadway Musical, Aleksei Grinenko (2024)
More LessReview of: Seriously Mad: Mental Distress and the Broadway Musical, Aleksei Grinenko (2024)
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 271 pp.,
ISBN 978-0-47205-644-6, p/bk, $39.95
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Merrily We Roll Along, New Broadway Cast Recording (2023)
More LessReview of: Merrily We Roll Along, New Broadway Cast Recording (2023)
USA: Masterworks Broadway, 79 min.,
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Broadway Bodies: A Critical History of Conformity, Ryan Donovan (2023)
More LessReview of: Broadway Bodies: A Critical History of Conformity, Ryan Donovan (2023)
London: Oxford University Press, 336 pp.,
ISBN 978-0-19755-108-0, p/bk, $39.95
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Musical Theatre for the Female Voice: The Sensation, Sound and Science of Singing, Shaun Aquilina (2023)
More LessReview of: Musical Theatre for the Female Voice: The Sensation, Sound and Science of Singing, Shaun Aquilina (2023)
London and New York: Routledge, 105 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-03226-159-1, p/bk, $42.95
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Redwood, directed by Tina Landau (2024)
By Robert MeffeReview of: Redwood, directed by Tina Landau (2024)
La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego, CA, USA, 25 February 2024
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British and American Musical Theatre Exchanges in the West End (1924–1970): The ‘Americanization’ of Drury Lane, Arianne Johnson Quinn (2022)
More LessReview of: British and American Musical Theatre Exchanges in the West End (1924–1970): The ‘Americanization’ of Drury Lane, Arianne Johnson Quinn (2022)
London: Palgrave Macmillan, 283 pp.,
ISBN 978-3-03114-662-6, p/bk, $119.99
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Up Here, directed by Thomas Kail, Kimmy Gatewood, Chioke Nassar and Rachel Raimist (2023)
More LessReview of: Up Here, directed by Thomas Kail, Kimmy Gatewood, Chioke Nassar and Rachel Raimist (2023)
USA: Hulu
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Volumes & issues
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Volume 18 (2024)
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Volume 17 (2023)
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Volume 16 (2022)
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Volume 15 (2021)
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Volume 14 (2020)
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Volume 13 (2019)
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Volume 12 (2018)
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Volume 11 (2017)
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Volume 10 (2016)
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Volume 9 (2015)
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Volume 8 (2014)
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Volume 7 (2013)
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Volume 6 (2012)
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Volume 5 (2011 - 2012)
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Volume 4 (2010)
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Volume 3 (2009)
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Volume 2 (2008)
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Volume 1 (2006 - 2007)