Stunt casting in mainstream musical theatre has been a point of contention since time immemorial. Should we sacrifice the quality of the production for a star name who’s guaranteed (ostensibly) to augment sales? Even if said star has theatre training and a live performance background, theatre fans tend to remain suspicious, and I don’t blame […]
The post Top 10 Stunt Castings That Just Might Work appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
With all of the well-publicized work and study towards a wider representation of women writers and writers of color in the theater (which I fully support), and in light of the recent record-breaking all-female Tony win for Fun Home and the all-female creative team behind the upcoming Waitress, I thought it was a good time to […]
The post The FUN HOME Test: A Personal Resume Self-Check appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
You know what we need more of in musical theatre? If you guessed “female duets and trios,” you’re correct! Sure, there are tons of songs from the Golden Age of musicals where ladies sing about their romantic trials (“Marry the Man Today” from Guys & Dolls, to name a classic), but despite the wonderful variety […]
The post What You Don’t Know About Women: Top 10 Female Group Numbers appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Musical theatre is intrinsically a medium of showing, not telling. Characters sing to elucidate thoughts that can’t be articulated simply through dialogue and dance in specific choreographed patterns that hold some narrative meaning; the various design elements in a production coalesce to visually reinforce content transmitted through the show’s text. When all is said and […]
The post Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Shows Your Story: The Narratology of Women in Musical Theatre appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
This past theatre season was a very important one for women. This idea has been talked about since before the Tony Awards back in June, with articles and open letters written (like this great one by The Interval) and infographics made depicting why the 2014-2015 season was so important in terms of female representation. A […]
The post Where Are The Women? Representation in Musical Theatre appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Stop and think for a moment. Off the top of your head, are you able to name ten female musical theatre composers? Five? Three? Chances are, you only know enough to count the names on one hand. In a world of vast diverse musical theater, should it really be difficult to name at least a […]
The post Evening the Playing Field: How Female Composers are still Playing Catch-up appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Last Sunday night was a historic night in theater, and I don’t just say that because it was the 69th Annual Tony Awards. Something incredible happened. As a theater student, I have spent more hours than I’d like to admit studying theater history. So, to add to the books, a few noteworthy things that happened […]
The post The 2015 Tony Awards Make History, and Why We’re Still Talking about 2004 appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Lately I have been thinking a lot about the ladies of musical theatre – not just the belters and the sopranos, but the composers, the lyricists, the librettists. Well I’ve been trying to, but doing so always ends up being incredibly upsetting. Representation of female writers in theatre is woefully inadequate (as documented and combatted […]
The post 6 Great Musical Theatre Songs By and For Women appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
As theatre people know far too well, all good things must come to an end. Today, I have to say goodbye to you, composers and screlters and writers and geeks of The Green Room. Thank you for being a part of my favorite art form, and thanks for listening to me talk about it so […]
The post The Girls on the Go: Everybody Tries appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Remember how crazy Amanda Bynes was on Twitter? We had a good laugh, right? …And then she went to treatment for mental illness. From the Salem Witch Trials to Twitter, our society has a difficult time remembering that mentally ill women are still human beings. This unfortunate fact of life makes me feel so thankful […]
The post The Girls On The Go: Who’s Crazy?: Female Characters and Mental Illness in Musicals appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
I can’t tell you definitively if life imitates art or vice versa, but I can tell you this: In life and art, the LGBT+ community has seen unprecedented progress in the United States. This means gay people like me are closer to equality and gay characters are more likely to be seen onstage. Is everything […]
The post The Girls on the Go: Glitter and Be Gay (and other thoughts on LGBT+ characters) appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
“You like musicals? Have you ever heard of Hairspray? You’d be a great Tracy Turnblad!” I have consistently heard variations of this for about ten years now. And I have the feeling it’s not just because I’m a belter and a brunette. SPOILER ALERT: I am not a skinny person! That doesn’t automatically make me […]
The post The Girls on the Go: Big, Fat, and Beautiful Women in Musical Theatre appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
There is always talk of the icons of musical theatre, particularly dealing with the writers. These are the ones we constantly refer to, the ones we worship as the gods of creating what American musical theatre is now, generally those who came to prominence during what is regarded as Broadway’s “Golden Age,” from “Show Boat” […]
The post The Fabulous Jeanine Tesori appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
If you happened to read my bio, you would know I have musical theatre training and experience writing about social issues. What my bio doesn’t tell you outright is that I look nothing like a Disney Princess. I do not wear a sample size. I am not a coloratura soprano. Also, sadly, I was never […]
The post The Girls on the Go: Female Character Roles and Society appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Pop quiz: name your top five new musical theatre composers. How many are women? If you’re me, maybe one half of a team. And it’s not that female writers aren’t out there, because they are. And it’s not even that they’re less talented, because give me five more seconds to think about it and I […]
The post Let’s Hear It For The Girls, Part One appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
To anyone, but mostly, the “me”s, I am a white, cisgender, gay man, writing musical theatre in New York City, and I am not uncommon. The amount of “me”s I see writing and performing and garnering awards and taking new jobs and making names for themselves is staggering. The inherent male/white/and yes, even in this case, gay […]
The post Being Aware appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
