Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical

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Labyrinth Books and Princeton University’s Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies invite you to a presentation and discussion devoted to the all-important role of women in the Broadway musical, both onstage and off.
 
From Adelaide in "Guys and Dolls" to Nina in "In the Heights" and Elphaba in "Wicked," female characters in Broadway musicals have belted and crooned their way into the American psyche. In this lively book, Stacy Wolf illuminates the women of American musical theatre - performers, creators, and characters -- from the start of the cold war to the present day, creating a new, feminist history of the genre.
 
Moving from decade to decade, Wolf highlights the assumptions that circulated about gender and sexuality at the time. She looks at the leading musicals to stress the key aspects of the plays as they relate to women, and often finds overlooked moments of empowerment for female audience members. The musicals discussed here are among the most beloved in the canon--"West Side Story," "Cabaret," "A Chorus Line," "Phantom of the Opera," and many others--with special emphasis on the blockbuster "Wicked." Along the way, Wolf demonstrates how the musical since the mid-1940s has actually been dominated by women--women onstage, women in the wings, and women offstage as spectators and fans.
 
Stacy Wolfis Professor of Theater and Director of the Princeton Atelier, Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University. She is the author of A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical.