Using older operatic styles intentionally in modern musical shows
Introduction
For Broadway Musicals, the emergence of meanings comes through negotiation, struggling to get the meaning from text, the context of the text and the spectator. The reference to the meaning of a play is an indication that it has already been interpreted and some aspects of the play have been considered. An examination of the Broadway – musical historical context can be done through the sexuality and gender theories especially the context performed by the lead women. The performances of various women in the theatre emanate from the cultural context of the specific periods of these performances, and the historical assumptions about sexuality and gender forms essential aspects of the intended meaning. The women in these musicals are a permanent part of American culture and live in cultural memory that is collective since their identities are known to the society; their appearances are iconic while their voices can be recognized immediately(Wolf, 2002, 9). Throughout their eras and present periods these characters in the musicals are historically important, since the context of the text consist also of the present periods and a proliferation of references to the women musicals.
Sexuality meaning of the musicals could also be viewed from the perspective of the spectator through history, when they imagine of these women as feminists, and such a position can be inhibited by any spectator who willingly hear and perceive from a feminist point of view. The use of the words feminist and woman interchangeably in this case highlights the primary concern with the use of musicals by spectators, regardless of their identity. The spectators may not have a similar view, since some may not see these musicals from the perspective of a feminist (Wolf, 2002, 9). Throughout the history of Broadway-musicals, the feminists have had their view on reading the musicals that have been readily available to a spectator who is inclined to hear and look in a given way. Over the 20th century, Broadway musicals were a mainstream culture which reflected and shaped the fascinations and concern of the society across United States. These musicals have sustained their prominence in American culture through television versions, university productions, Broadway revivals and community theatres (Wolf, 2002, 11). The growth of Broadway music was significant in the period of World War II, a time when women’s work also involved outside their homes and later assumed their homemaking roles after the male gender reclaimed its jobs. During these periods, homosexuals were criminalized and ‘pathologize’ and the image of middle-class white nuclear families were representatives of American society. The musical seems to have been a reflection of the dominant values in this culture which was homophobic, sexist and conservatives (Parke, 2014, 175). The musicals have been structured around heterosexual relationships even though in most of them , the man and woman normally starts as enemies of one another or suspicious of one another .They eventually get married as seen in Marian the librarian and Harold Hill in The Music Man and Frank Butler and Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun. In these musicals the women are seen to fall hopelessly in love and the heterosexual unions in the musicals bring unity to the community(Wolf, 2002, 17). The woman is seen submitting to man, the nature to passion, the passion submits to reason and the body to the mind. In The Love Song produced in 1925 by Messrs Shubert, it uses tradition to have an impact on gender by using the effects it has on conceptualization of sexuality and gender (Temple, 21). In the song, women and men do not speak to one another, a failing that is expressed in various ways as the man is fearful of interaction conversation and physical interaction. The musical uses sentimental language to indicate the gender roles as being sexually divisive. The Broadway musicals appear to end in such a way that marriage is not literal but a symbolic end where the heterosexual couple’s strength is celebrated in a nuclear family. In the Carousel, Billy Bigelow goes back to heaven as his soul has been redeemed and his daughter is a high school graduate, and The Sound of Music’s Trapp family overcomes the Nazis and escape by foot to Austria (Wolf, 2002, 19). Eventually if a woman does not copulate to a man, she is isolated as a form of punishment, which is marked in almost every musical a tragic end. In many cases, the musicals message appear to be that heterosexual is mandatory and natural and that it is for women to be aware of their place in such a setting(Wolf, 2002, 25). The idea of simplistic conservative in the musical underestimates the various meanings that can be drawn from it. The post war periods was marked with an unexpected baby boom, building of infrastructures like highway systems, migration to suburbs for some people and the increase of households’ commodities that capitalized women who were housewives as being consumers (Wolf, 2011, 36). However, these years saw the American culture being influenced by movements on women liberation and civil rights. There was a flourishing of lesbian and gay communities in homes, private spaces and even bars, whose momentums exploded in Stonewall incidents. The Musical theatres during the 1950s’ and 1960s’ can also be seen to have had an influence on gender roles as they portrayed the possible happy endings (Wolf, 2011, 37). Even so, cracks existed in the musical as the America’s preferred form of entertainment for escapists. During these periods, entertainment technologies availed the musicals and made it possible for them to be translated into more cultural forms that were accessible. Even though Broadway musical it became more available due to albums and its stars regular appearance on television, it maintained its original setting so that it continued being accessible to relatively few individuals especially in the high art realm (Wolf, 2002, 13). Hence, it immediate impact on sexuality and gender roles was limited in comparison to the influence of television and film. During these periods, family was epitomized the common America’s social values and the roles of various genders were perceived to be positive and were portrayed as important for social stability and psychological wellbeing. As portrayed in the early Broadway Musicals, the roles of male gender included husbands, breadwinners and made rules while women married while still young, had children and were homemakers by using the many household’s appliances that were available in the market. The female genders were, therefore, experienced in the management of well-run and clean homes while making it possible for their children to succeed (Wolf, 2011, 37). While most women during the times of wars could work outside their homes more so the white and middle-class women, they lost these jobs upon the return of men from the battle fields. The shifting in the roles of various genders is thus indicated in the Broadway musicals to represent what was happening in the real world. As such, after the wars, social stability was maintained by reversing the trends of women working outside their homes, and a common theme in popular post way theatre writings was on how women should take back their place in homes. In these instances, women who showed interest or insisted on continuing to work were depicted as greedy and thoughtless, a bad home maker and even a poor partner to her husband (Wolf, 2011, 37). Even though white families were characterized as happy and in suburbs, mowing lawns and watching televisions, the time involved a lot of anxiety and uneasiness even for such families who were heterosexual and Christian. During the war periods, mothers who did not take care of their children were depicted as having bred criminals while those who overprotected them especially sons raised passive and effeminates homosexuals were considered perverts(Wolf, 2011, 37). In these times, while homosexuality was being fought by the government and the society, liberalism was being expressed in sexuality and art. Meanwhile, cultural and social struggles that would result to Beat culture, civil rights and movements on women liberation were forming in the background. In the decades following the war, the musicals had become part of theater and popular culture and were used to reflect the realities in everyday life, and through them the status quo was perpetuated. It also offered possible ways or means of obtaining sexual relations and identities (Wolf, 2011, 37). In the Broadway musicals, women were many a time depicted as being glamorous temptresses, martyrs or some just girls –next-door. In addition, images of females as mothers were idealized and this practice proliferated in various characters in the musicals. Play wrights like Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller had dominated the non-musical theaters in the period of the mid-century (Wolf, 2011, 41). Method acting and Dramatic realism brought in identificatory spectatorship where character’s psychology could be recognized by the audience, and relate her to other real women, could hence feel disgust pity or anger towards her. Even with such limited stereotypes, contradictions still existed. Some of the musicals portrayed their characters in their sexual attractiveness so that their gyrating hips together with singing melodies attracted fans more so the women to express their sexual desires(Wolf, 2011, 41) . Such images portrayed by musicals were in support of social values and a reflection of the varying expectations.In the musical, women are represented differently from nonmusical theater and mass culture across the United States society. While most of the musicals feature the naïve women as just girl- next-door who undertakes the role of romantic lead in soprano, some musicals provided temptresses like Damn Yankees’ Lola while others have strong and dominating women such as The King and I’s Anna (Everett, 2009, 389). In addition, women who play alongside men are represented as being singular and powerful. Hence, many shows have their focus on women who tend to be stars who dominate in the presence of men. In musicals, the idea of motherhood as a familial and biological role is hardly even represented unlike the idea of perfect mothers represented on film and television, even though the allegorical representation of women as caretakers rather than biological mother is quite common. This can be seen in various musicals such as The King and I and South Pacific by Hammerstein and Rodgers where the identity the women take on exceeds their motherhood roles (Everett, 2009, 389). As such, idealized mothers are seen as secondary in musicals unlike in television where they take a primary place. Moreover, the performance in Broadway musical does not feature women as vilifications subjects or objects of desire that are passive. Any argument that Broadway Musicals in mid-19th century have potential lesbian pleasures and feminist is contrary to the grain of musicals accepted musicals. Even in the days they were very popular, these musicals were seen as nostalgic and sentimental form of art by many fans. A common aspect of the Broadway musicals is the untrue fantasies they perpetuate at societal and individual levels. At the individual level, this is seen main characters idea of boy gets girl while at the societal level all people are united a scenario is seen in Broadway Babies Say Goodnight (Wolf, 2002, 23). Sexual tolerance is promoted by the musicals of mid-20th – century and represent a future American society where heterosexual couples are united and people from different backgrounds co-exist peacefully essentially through music and dance. The passionate expression, singularity and strength of female stars in the Broadway musicals are an indication of the influence the women blues singers of African American background had on this form of art. As seen in the musicals, these women singers adopt aural and visual space and tend to reclaim their bodies and experiences by singing (Wolf, 2002, 27). Some of these women were lesbians or were rumored to be lesbians or bisexual.
The fact that the Broadway musicals depicted some tolerance for all sexualities is seen by the way homosexuals and especially gay men played an important role in the musicals production history. The illicit affairs in these musicals can be read using gay sub-texts. For instance, D.A. Miller in Place for Us use poetic language to evoke gay men’s personal history as it crisscross with his fascination for this partly gay genre of Broadway Musical (Parke, 2014, 175). He is noted asserting that almost all of the 1950s musicals contain a subtext of gay. Hence, despite their orientations that were considered unacceptable in the society, the Broadway musical have been providing an emotional, personal and cultural approval for these men. The musical’s relationship with gay masculinity can be a sufficient proof their queerness , since musicals’ spectacle has been an attraction for gay spectators as they see their behavior as being a heightened artifice through modes that are considered as unnatural like camp . Hence, many of these men expressive the particularly feminine pleasures found in this musical. These aspects can be seen in the aesthetics of the musicals which portray effeminized or feminine and emotive characteristics of the genre (Parke, 2014, 177). They are represented in spectacular costuming and décor, complex choreography and songs about romantic fulfillment and yearning. Part of the attractiveness of the musical comes from the seductive ability to have gay men desire to perform like these women. It is also argued that musical theater is part of culture for gay male as represented in the Something for the Boys where they can identify with the diva’s performances (Parke, 2014, 179). Hence, the power of feminine is being fundamental to this artifice as seen in gay men identifying with way above performance of femininity in the entire society regardless of the various sexual orientations. The musicals are depending on women as main characters and the frequent depiction of women as being the show’s active centers and very strong. While the gay men are taking the side of leading lady across the line of gender, the female spectators seems to find a strong in the character belonging to their own gender as the actor (Cantu, 2015, 52).
The act of dancing and singing which forms the foundation of musicals’ performances demonstrates the vocal and physical strength of women which serves the need for athleticism in these musicals. Being center stage, the female actor has story being developed around her and the various songs composed to be presented by her alone. For the actor, her vocal strength makes her musical speech to drown everything in the surrounding and spectators become passive objects that have been battered by this voice. The autoerotic quality and character of the female actor is exhibited and even celebrated by these songs, and even where the songs about loving a man or when the listener implied is supposed to be a man, she owns the song so that the performance is only about her(Cantu, 2015, 52). Hence, the active feminine culture of the mid-20th century which does not portray a woman as passive or an object makes it possible for her to assume the self-spectacle position. In the Broadway musical, the perception and portrayal of women and even men have been determined by gender cultural construct. This aspect can clearly be seen in the chorus in the Broadway musical, where anxieties around how the men and women relate is often displayed by the chorus girl’s image. As mentioned earlier, the social roles of women began changing as they struggled to vote, their increasing participation in workplace as World Wars raged and the 1960’s sexual revolution (Cantu, 2015, 53). In relation to these changes, the female character in Broadway musical chorus embodies the femininity image. The chorus girl remained central to the Broadway musical and even an essential cultural symbol throughout the periods of the world wars.
As women were starting to experience more freedom on their sexuality and control of their bodies with emergence of birth control, theater was shifting away from the popular culture while the chorus girl was no longer the center of action or performance (Wolf, 2011, 38). The female character remained necessary for musical production but since their sexual desire has been democratized, she has been removed from this pedestal that she once fully occupied. While the female gender flourished, the male gender in form of chorus boy been perceived as backdrop or partner to women, was treated like cultural embarrassment, was acknowledged mockingly or largely ignored. The male gender desire, willingness and desire for self-display on stage became subordinate to chorus girls’ position , so that he engaged in a feminine dance while at the same time being placed outside the western model of heterosexual masculinity(Wolf, 2011, 39). Since he was placed to work outside the traditional role of a male gender, he was perceived as homosexual which could have been the case for many men in this chorus. The perception of the chorus boys made them to be viewed as being gay. Any efforts to correct this image appeared from the 1920’s operetta, at a period when masculinity was being introduced in form of bass choruses. The Broadway musical comedy adopts the idea through representation of chorus boys as military officers. This was done in Yip Yap Yaphank as literal form and in This is the Army as fiction. The later comes with before the 1969 Stonewall riot where the process of liberation of gat begun and which subsequently leads to gay characters and male chorus start being seen on stage later in 1970’s (Wolf, 2011, 40).
In present times, human sexuality and sexual orientation has been openly portrayed in the musicals as seen in the open playwrights about gays. About 50 years ago the display was not very straight forward and in many cases it attracted a lot of criticism especially in the mainstream media like newspapers. With time, the convention on both theatric and social has been widened so much that on Broadway musicals, homosexuality has been dramatized with as much freedom as the demonstration of the heterosexual life (Everett, 2009, 390). This open demonstration has emerged after lengthy criticism that playwrights on homosexual theme have been presenting a distorted picture of society, women and marriage in various musicals. The playwrights have now been advocating for a free writing of sexuality themes at a personal level or about their world with no need of disguising their nature. As such, musicals have been portraying gay life in a manner that has not been observed before onstage. The influence of these playwrights on sexuality were clearly observed in the late 1980s’ when the gay community had been brought together by an AIDs pandemic which whose result was devastating to this community. Broadway production like Safe Sex in 1987 by Fierstein was also transformed by this pandemic and it became inevitable source of this subject matter (Everett, 2009, 391). The musicals at the time did not shy away from the fact that the AIDs pandemic made the gay community to be more visible than ever before and the issue was depicted in various playwrights. While the Broadway musicals had stayed away from openly highlighting the issue of homosexuality in the early part of the century, the authors of this genre were now embracing the reality of different sexual orientation regardless of whether they were considered moral or immoral in the society. Feminism had earlier take the centre stage with the issue of male being given little space in the performers of the musicals and hence, the issue of female sexual freedom was now being replaced by an all inclusive musical theater(Denshoff & Griffin, 2004, 84). The female performers were now singing and dancing alongside the male gender.
It could be argued that the extraordinary representation of sexualities, either heterosexual or homosexual, indicates the popularization of these aspects among the spectators of Broadway musical. This brings forth an engagement structure that has been invested in what may seem like perverse fantasies or extreme desires. This means the queerness of the shifting of anti-normative variation that resonates well with the issue of homosexuality in the past and current society. Queerness means the strange positions in the culture that are contrary to what is considered straight or normal in a specific society (Denshoff & Griffin, 2004, 84). This is seen in the fair representation of a kind of sexual orientation that is contrary to what in the past has been considered to the acceptable heterosexual relations. The issue representation is not about the formation of homosexual or heterosexual desires but the expressions of such desires in the musical through some love relationships of the performing characters. The Broadway musicals have been seen as providing a platform or method of conceiving the issue of intersexual relationships that have remained non-discussed in the society. It is not a surprise that some musical like choral love songs that imply a sexual unity in the entire community being linked to the celebration of the actions such as orgies (Denshoff & Griffin, 2004, 85). Such a representation can be seen where the society decides to accept aspects such as pornography when it is legalized but confined to certain age. As such the musicals offer sequences or images that be interoperated to refer to some specific sexuality like homosexual and homoerotic at the very least. It has been suggested that that musical is the only genre where the male body has been put on erotic display with no shame in the conventional cinema (Denshoff & Griffin, 2004, 85).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Broadway musicals have been used to express the various aspects of sexualities which comprises of the various gender roles, sexual freedom and sexual orientation throughout the history of this genre. The musicals have been used to define the changes that have occurred in these aspects and have even been part of steering such changes. Through the Broadway musicals, the issue of sexualities has been explored fully, so that what had not been discussed openly in the society is now being shown in the musical theater.
References
Wolf, Stacy Ellen. A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2002. 8-28
Parke, Michelle. Queer in the Choir Room: Essays on Gender and Sexuality in Glee. 2014. 174-179
Cantu, Maya. American Cinderellas on the Broadway Musical Stage: Imagining the Working Girl from Irene to Gypsy. 2015. 52-53 <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1091463>.
Everett, William A. The A to Z of the Broadway Musical. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Pub. Group, 2009. 389-391
Wolf, Stacy .Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical: Oxford University Press, 2011. 35 -40
Temple, George. "Gender through Tradition in „Prufrock‟ and „Songs to Joannes‟. n.d .21
Denshoff, Harry M, Griffin ,Sean. Queer Cinema: The Film Reader. Psychology Press, 2004.82-84
