An ongoing Sociological study of Musical Theatre

This is where I post my sociologicial findings on musical theatre. Please read the study criterion before asking questions

[eurydiceh]

EMILIE KOUATCHOU as CHRISTINE DAAÉ

The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway

[donzepan]

HEY

Hamilton: An American Musical portrays the founding fathers in a far more positive light than they deserve and neglects to mention the horrific impact these men had on both African Americans as a collective and the individual Black people they interacted with and portrays America through rose-tinted glasses

AND

Hamilton : An American Musical was instrumental in igniting a new wave of musical appreciation and modern musicals that sparked a generation's interest in history while also giving recognition and roles to incredible Actors and Actresses of color and is a musical masterpiece

Are opinions that can and should coexist. It's okay to be critical of the things you consume. It's encouraged even.

[zaritarazi]

ciara renee in full elsa costume for the first time

[nonotespepperwood]

A lot of Broadway shows don't tour either. New York is hardly an ease of access point for everyone so how about every now and again put a show on tour so it's easier for people to actually get to

[fuckyeahgreatplays]

“I’ve been asked if I’m with the catering staff at theater critics events, been chastised by angry ushers to turn my cell phone off, even if I have never taken my device out of my pocket during a performance, and often been asked if I’m sure I belong in the orchestra, as ushers point me to the mezzanine. My skin has become so thickened by the mistreatment and rudeness of theater employees that I might as well be a walking callus. I experience this, in part, because I’m a rarity on Broadway. In the 2017-2018 season, 75% of Broadway audiences were Caucasian, according to statistics compiled by the Broadway League. Theater clearly has a people of color problem: It’s not only that many people of color have no interest in revivals of revered but irrelevant plays featuring beige ensembles, it’s also that when we do come to the theater, we are told that we’re invading white spaces. When I see a show with a white friend, people often ask the friend if they brought me to the show and ask me if it’s my first time at the theater. Every awards season we listen to speeches about the beauty and inclusiveness of the theater community, but people of color know that it’s an illusion. For every Tony Award given to a person of color, dozens of us are denied entry to these temples of love and acceptance.”

—

Opinion: What people of color experience at the theater

Jose Solis is a friend of mine, and some of the discrimination he’s faced as a critic who is also a POC is inexcusable. Theater people like to praise themselves for being more open minded than the rest of the world but it’s some of the same old shit. 

I commend Jose for speaking up about this, and would also encourage  theater lovers following me to give him a follow on twitter, as Jose gives basically all his reviewer +1s to POC (and others are starting to follow suit). 

[lanimdawg]

When I grow up, I wanna be a newsie!!!!

[asiantheatre]

i’m just tryna have some FUN!

[keepingupwithlinmanuel]

Lin-Manuel Miranda on Bringing More Magic to Spanish-Speaking Moviegoers and In the Heights Film

Lin-Manuel Miranda talked to People CHICA from Wales, where he is taping the new HBO series His Dark Materials. “I get to play this cowboy who flies this hot air balloon, and it’s this incredibly imaginative fantasy world,” he says about the show, premiering in November. He will also be directing his first movie, a film adaptation of the musical Tick, Tick…Boom! by American composer Jonathan Larson. At the same time, the creative genius and multitasker, 39, will be producing and acting in his hip-hop musical Freestyle Love Supreme on Broadway.

“I struggle,” he admits with a laugh about juggling his work projects and family life. “We all struggle with the work-life balance! Right now I’m in Wales and they are in New York,” he says about his wife, Vanessa Nadal, and their kids Sebastian and Francisco. “But I will leave tomorrow because my son starts kindergarten at the end of the week and I’m not missing his first day of kindergarten. I will go home for the first days of school and the first ride on the school bus and all of that.”

No matter how busy his schedule gets, it never distracts him from staying connected to his loved ones. “It’s a lot of checking in. I celebrate nine years of marriage to my wife and it’s a constant dialogue. We are really lucky that our kids really like each other. They are about to be 5 and 2, and Sebastian is a really good big brother, they get along really well. I got a picture from my wife at 5 a.m. with the headline ‘Jail Break,’ and my son had taken the baby out his crib and brought him to his room and they were just playing together,” he recalls with a laugh. “They also get really surreal experiences like driving all over Wales on my days off. I’ll be curious to read the book they write some day!”

The renowned playwright, actor and producer, of Puerto Rican descent, is also excited about being a global ambassador for the innovative app TheaterEars, which allows people to watch movies in the movie theater in Spanish. “This is so that you and your abuela can go see the same movie. When I heard about the app and how it worked, I just thought, ‘I wish this was around when my abuela was around so that she could take me to the movies and have the same amount of fun watching as me,” he says. “It allows families that speak different languages to all go see the same movie together, you pick your language and you go. If you look at statistics of moviegoers, people who are going to movies, it’s Latinos. We are the ones who go out to the movies and we go as a family. The fact that you now have this app that allows you to enjoy the film in your language of choice is really exciting.”

…

Working on the film adaptation of his hit play In the Heights is another dream come true. “It’s so exciting. We spent the summer doing principal photography and filming the movie, it’s in edit right now. You have no idea how validating it is. The show, which I wrote with Quiara Hudes, was a love letter to our neighborhood. We both lived in Washington Heights. I grew up in northern Manhattan, just a little north of Washington Heights, and the show is a love letter to that community — in the way in which it’s always changing, in the way in which it never changes — but its debut was on a Broadway stage, so it was a Broadway version of that neighborhood. Now to go and take those same songs and those same characters and actually put them on the screen is amazing,” he says. “We filmed entirely on location. We took over a block on 175th Street and filmed there all summer, and the way we were embraced by the community was so incredible. I can’t wait for the world to see it.”

The film is the epitome of Latino representation, with a stellar cast that includes Jimmy Smits, Anthony Ramos, Dascha Polanco, Daphne Rubin-Vega, salsa crooner Marc Anthony, and Miranda himself. “It was so emotional,” he says about seeing this film come to life. “A lot of the time when you are Latino working in Hollywood, you are one of a few on screen. There are very few where everyone — in front of and behind the camera — has that same shared experience. It’s a party con pay. It’s a party but they are paying us to do it.” One particular anecdote that comes to mind is recording the song “Carnaval del Barrio” with the cast holding up the flag of the country they are from and continuing to dance and laugh way after director Jon Chu yelled “cut” to end the scene. “We just kept going and singing and cheering and chanting and stamping and crying and laughing, and I’ll never forget that experience,” Miranda recalls.

[vampeyeliner]

Literally anyone: Muscial theatre should be more accessible for disabled and poor people. We should also have diverse stories and cast. Women as directors and producers are just as good as men.

Teenagers and old people who think Little Shop of Horrors is the be-all and end-all of musical theatre:

[poeticallyunkind]

[abby-that]

No offense but the point of Broadway and live theater is that it’s a privilege and it’s by no means a right to see live theater.

[gateskeeping]

no offense but the point of theatre in general is to enjoy art and stories that storytellers choose to tell, and by saying this, you are perpetuating elitism in theatre and broadway. theatre in greek and roman times, theatre in shakespearean times, theatre in times before vaudeville and broadway was supposed to accessible to everyone. people were required in ancient greece to see plays performed. the cheapest seats for SHAKESPEARE plays could be afforded by the poorest of the poor. don’t be an asshole to people who want to experience amazing theatre and storytelling but can’t afford it, okay ? let people experience theatre in any way they can

[thehellevator]

Listen, if they didnt post A Very Potter Musical to youtube, we all would have missed out on the best piece of Harry Potter Fiction there is

[korrasera]

No offense but it’s extremely fucking offensive for people to argue that only those privileged with wealth and power should be able to see live theater.

There is absolutely nothing about theater that’s meant to be held behind locked and barred gates. The only aspect of theater that’s even remotely segmented away from people is that it’s a medium meant to be experienced live, so the ideal viewing is to be there, in the theater, with the actors.

The ideal viewing experience for movies is a 30 foot tall screen but you don’t see people saying talking about how we can’t watch movies at home on Netflix because it’s a “privilege” and “not a right” to watch movies.

Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ.

Classism is another form of bigotry, it’s just one that’s a bit more insidious than others because so many of us don’t even realize it exists.

[nikiiwi]

no offense but most of the broadway musicals that have gotten big enough to win awards, go on tour, or get revived within the last ten years could do so because bootlegs got popular enough to spur on young fans and get them advertising the show online. live or pre-recorded streams offer new and potentially very lucrative revenue opportunities that producers are only afraid of because it would change the culture of theatre.

[helpimsotired]

Justin McElroy talking about accessibility in live theatre (June 9, 2019)

[formichi]

[daloy-politsey-deactivated20171]

Some facts:

1) Black Americans created jazz. 2) Jewish Americans created comic books. 3) These things are said to be the only original American art forms.

[thelordfool]

4) black Americans invented rock and roll.

[swanboulet]

5) Black AND Jewish Americans created musical theatre. 

[iwonthepageant]

[lizabethl]

Why is this not FLOODING my feed?!

Don Cheadle rocking this shirt while hosting SNL is EVERYTHING.

Thank you, Don ❤❤❤

[bissybody]

Don Cheadle said trans rights

[twistedeveryway]

Speaking of Hamilton, it’s super fucked up the reputation it gets because of some of its more immature fans. Like, yeah, okay, there are people out there that are treating the founding fathers like “uwu cinnamon roll characters” instead of the actual real life people they were but that’s….not the show’s fault? The show does a better job of showing them as flawed human beings than MOST historical media, which tend to glorify them and completely ignore all flaws and shortcomings.

But more than that, it’s fucked up that the show is starting to get a bad reputation or be regarded as “cringey”. This is a show that shattered records and set milestones in theatre, and it is a show that is like 99% non-white. It’s a show that was written BY a man of colour specifically to CREATE more roles for performers of colour in an industry where he always felt there was little to no room for them. Can we not discredit that or its importance just because some teens on tumblr don’t know how to be normal about a musical they like?

[earith]

themichaelkushner Just photographed Brittney Johnson, the first Glinda of color, as she prepares to go on in Wicked for the first time. . . #wicked #blackglinda #brittneyjohnson #herstory #wickedonbroadway #wickedthemusical #glinda #galinda #bts

[shersjar]

Nov. 30, 2018. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the modern day Shakespeare, left a fingerprint on the Hollywood Walk of Fame by being honored with a Star for his contribution in theaters. With his poetic theatrical works and encouraging pep talks on Twitter, Lin’s changed not only the theater but also the world (especially for our generation); he inspires us to want to be better and more aspiring, and to do more with our power and talent. This is the extravagant bundle of talents who’s a poet, an actor, a musician, a playwright, and an overall extraordinary person that I look up to and idolize. Congratulations, Lin, on the receiving of the star; and thank you, for the inspiration. (Image credit: GettyImages)

[augustds]

For the 75th anniversary production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, she loves her and he loves him!

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical Oklahoma! was revived by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival with LGBT+ Casting. “This revival made the musical’s primary romantic couple, Laurey and Curly, lesbians. It made the comic sidekick couple, Will Parker and Ado Annie, gay men (with “Annie” renamed “Andy”). It’s not just the two romantic couples in the show who have been reimagined. Laurey’s starchy yet sometimes playful Aunt Eller will be a transgender woman (portrayed by a transgender female performer). Ali Hakim will be a bisexual man who has a great fling with Ado Andy, but winds up married to a young bi woman named Gertie Cummings (who also fell in love with Curly). The director, Bill Rauch, felt Jud needed to stay a troubled straight man who, with no changes to the book, is angry that Laurey prefers a woman instead of him. “We wanted also to make sure that the world was not just LGBTQ-inclusive, but that it was clear that this was a community that was thriving, because there are straight allies. They are choosing in this small rural corner of Oklahoma to make a community that is inclusive and that is loving.””

Major changes to a show must be approved by the copyright holder. "Ted Chapin protects the catalog of Rodgers and Hammerstein with great ferocity, and at the same time, he understands the way great classics remain relevant is through thoughtful expansion and reinvention and experiment. So, I was really, really honored — not only to get the permission in general, but the fact that this is the 75th anniversary of ‘Oklahoma!‘ 

The story of the Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning Oklahoma! centers around Laurey and Curly, who are in love but are too stubborn to admit it to one another. A troubled farmhand, Jud, will do everything in his power to make Laurey fall in love with him instead. "I think this casting really excels in the love song ‘People Will Say We’re In Love,’ a beautiful love song that Laurey and Curly share, but their fear that people will say we’re in love takes on a completely different resonance and a completely different depth when it’s sung by two women, and the courage that it takes for these two people then, you know, finally when they sing, ‘Let people say we’re in love.’ The audience just cries and cheers, because it’s an affirmation in a completely different way.

Sources: x / x / x ll Official Production Page