Blog Filter By Posts By Maddie McClouskey

The Girls on the Go: Everybody Tries

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.

What do Cabaret, Gypsy, Sweet Charity, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Jekyll and Hyde, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, The Life, RENT, Lippa’s The Wild Party, Avenue Q, and Lysistrata Jones all have in common? All of these musicals feature sex workers. Sex work includes prostitution, pornography, stripping, exotic dancing, and […]

The post The Girls on the Go: You Don’t Have to Get a Gimmick (And Other Thoughts on Sex-Worker Roles) 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.

Let me start off by saying I am white. If you think you’re “Colorblind,” that’s a story for another day, but I promise that my whiteness is relevant to this discussion. When I set out to write The Girls on the Go, I knew I wanted to tackle the ways in which musical theatre needs […]

The post The Girls on the Go: You’re Not “White Audra” (and Other Thoughts on Race) appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

There are so many different types of female character roles.  As I’ve said before, “Character Role” is pretty much an umbrella term for any role who is less understood or accepted by society compared to the ingenue. Naturally, character actresses are drawn to “Quirky” pieces to set them apart. What’s quirkier than wearing pigtails (even […]

The post The Girls on the Go: Ditch the Baby Voice (And Other Ideas for Younger Roles) appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

The Girls on the Go: Female Character Roles and Society

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.