Musical TheatHER

As a child growing up in the musical theatre community, I looked up to all the women on the stage in front of me. Idina Menzel, Sutton Foster, and Anna Kendrick were gods to me. I think this is because they were written into modern-day musicals that actually portray what it’s like to be powerful women. When I wanted to venture out of the contemporary scene, I quickly stumbled upon the so-called “Golden Age” of musical theatre. While the flashy group numbers and beautiful ingenues were obviously something to love, they did not do enough to mask the underlying, or sometimes obvious, tones of sexism. I began to question why every female character had to end up with a guy? There was a lack of characters who were complete without a man by their side, and this didn’t sit right with me? I never understood why a musical, or really any form of art, needed a love story in order to “elevate” the girl. It confused me that women are so often portrayed as desperate and weak without a love interest. So I stopped just asking myself questions like “If most audiences have an average of 60-70% female attendance according to Huffpost, why is it all about pleasing the male perspective?”, and I started looking for answers.

I think playwrights rely on this common “Cinderella story” trope because so many girls grew with fantasies of Prince Charming whisking us away, and really, a lot of us still do. And that desire for love doesn’t have to be a bad thing. The bad thing is that women grow up learning that they can’t make the first move. They have to wait for a guy that's bigger and stronger than them to pick us out of our misery like Cinderella. Well guess what, ladies? We are the strong ones. Even if you still want to be carried out of a tower like Fiona by her handsome.. Ogre. But not all shows are as progressive as Shrek, which applauds differences and inner beauty. Of course, Shrek does have its fair share of questionable scenes, but as a more modern musical, it has a modern message, one which empowers women instead of degrading them.

Don’t get me wrong. I love traditional musical theatre. Legit sopranos breaking glass with their high C’s and men hiding their true emotions behind brick walls are still entertaining to me. Cheesy, Annie the Orphan, type shows are classic staples of heartwarming stories that were necessary to boost musical theatre following. When musicals just started to be written, people wanted to see a positive, melodic, and exaggerated representation of their lives to forget about all their hardships. But as the years have gone on, we’re done forgetting about our difficulties. We don’t just want candy coated lyrics and bright dance routines. We want to see our own, realistically flawed lives represented in song! That doesn’t mean you can never enjoy a golden age musical where the only worry is the “will they, won’t they” of the leads. Yet these musicals don’t always have the best messages, proving that the Golden Age was really only golden for sexism.

Grease. About as equally good in your hair as on stage. The show has always brought controversy around with it, but it often gets brushed off for being considered a “teen fantasy musical.” The problems start right at the beginning. A summer fling between the two main characters, Danny Zuko and Sandra “Sandy” Dee, seems to be going great. Then school starts up again, and the two decide to call off their relationship, figuring that they will never see each other again. But when Danny realizes that Sandy is a new student at his school, he avoids her. He seems to think he is somehow better than Sandy because she is a “goody.” So we have to ask, what happened to the Danny from that summer? Suddenly you’re back with your biker gang, and the pressure of living up to stereotypes is just too much for your little high school heart?? Grow up Danny. I also have a huge problem with the line “Did she put up a fight” in an early number “Summer Lovin.” This implies that rape culture is normalized in the 1950’s which it absolutely should not be. Girls are trapped between being called a slut or a “goody goody”, most notably shown by the two main female leads, Sandy and Rizzo. In one of my least favorite songs of the show, “Sandra Dee,” Rizzo criticizes Sandy for being “lousy with virginity.” If sex (yes we can say it, it’s not a bad word) is such a bad thing, why are men, and only men, praised for having it? This lyric is especially painful because it is a woman judging another woman for her sense of sexuality. Women should be supporting women, but instead Grease proudly parades scenes of slut-shaming and the Pink Ladies helping Sandy change her personality to get the guy. Gross.

Another musical that is less than kind to women is How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Fair warning, the show is disgustingly sexist. Great soundtrack except for Act II’s number “I Believe in You” in which the main character hypes himself up in a bathroom mirror at work while the men around him chant “Gotta Stop that Man.” How come men are allowed to have bucket loads of self confidence but if a woman is feeling’ herself up it was seen as shameful? That and the song starts and ends in the exact same emotional place. The only thing enjoyable about that show was Nick Jonas in the Broadway revival in 2012. Otherwise, it sets up a lot of truly concerning stereotypes and disturbing ideals for women. The premise follows an aspiring young businessman J. Pierrepont Finch and his rise to the top of J.B. Biggly’s World Wide Wicket company. The story is about as boring as it sounds, but the addition of a few tap numbers certainly elevates it.. But not even tap numbers could make this a better show for the love interest, Rosemary Pilkington. She, her best friend Smitty, and all the other secretaries in the company sing an entire song about being “happy to keep his dinner warm” while her dear old husband-to-be works. Ew. Gross. I know. Finch simply does not deserve her. Then there's the boss’s girlfriend, Heady, who is overly sexualized and used as a prop throughout the show. At least there's a song called “A Secretary is Not a Toy.” Because that will even out all the politically inaccurate statements in the show right. Right? Wrong… even though people might’ve looked past it at the time, we are fortunately more evolved and can see the irony. That’s why many theatre companies perform this show and ones like it as a satire. Well, a backwards satire. We can recognize and address behaviors that in 1952 might’ve been considered normal, but nowadays people would and should have a huge problem with. Instead of a warning, it's a reminder of how things were and how far we’ve come. And how much farther we have to go.

In 1985, the Bechdel–Wallace test was created to ensure shows were correctly portraying women for their intelligence instead of their bodies. The rule states that the show must have at least one scene where two girls (that must be NAMED) talk about something other than a man. Sounds simple but you’d be surprised how many well known musicals fail this test: Anything Goes; Oklahoma!; Carousel; Kiss Me, Kate; South Pacific;Guys and Dolls; And you guessed it, How to Succeed. But these were the years of those shows. 1934. 1943. 1945. 1948. 1949. 1950. Seeing a pattern? Now here's a list of shows that pass the Bechdel-Wallace test: Carrie; Miss Saigon; Once on this Island; Rent; Legally Blonde; Thoroughly Modern Millie Wicked; In the Heights. These shows came out in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1996, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005 So I have some good news for you.

Musicals are doing a better job illustrating real life as a woman now as opposed to 50 years ago. This is because more contemporary musicals are (shockingly) being written by… wait for it... WOMEN! And it only took 50 years of sexist musicals for women to break into the writing room! The future of theatre is looking brighter with every new show, but there is still plenty of work to be done regarding BIPOC and the amount of white casting directors in charge of casting predominantly non-white shows. So many people are not seeing themselves correctly represented in theatre, or even represented at all, but if depictions of women are being pulled out of the gutter, the rest will get there too. We just have to keep fighting, or singing, for it.