• A Critical Companion to the American Stage Musical (Elizabeth L. Wollman)

6/11/18 (Mon)

I don’t have much to say about this one-note history of the American musical, which is more concerned with the minority content of the shows than their quality. It discusses West Side Story in some detail, for example, without ever mentioning dance, an odd omission to say the least for this groundbreaking dance drama. In the author’s mind, the musical’s only claim to fame is that it offers roles for Hispanic characters in what she sees as an overwhelmingly white art form. Never mind that those characters were themselves created by three white guys – or, for that matter, three Jewish guys or three gay guys, if that sounds any better (all of the above, in fact). Can’t Hispanics or others create their own shows? And my guess is that Hispanics were no more numerous in the audience at that musical than at any other show – they are still significantly underrepresented among Broadway audiences with respect to their population regardless of the show’s content. This concern for a show’s PC credentials permeates the book and becomes very tiresome.

(Around the time I was reading the book, Broadway veteran Sierra Boggess, a Caucasian actress, announced she had dropped out of a special concert performance of West Side Story in London in order to give way to a Latin performer – not a specific performer, note; apparently any DREAMer will do. This has nothing to do with Boggess’ ability or approach to the part and everything to do with her ethnicity, which doesn’t meet the liking of the self-appointed guardians of diversity – the same guardians who, in dizzying logic, insist that ethnicity shouldn’t matter in casting traditional musicals.)

But what really struck me in reading the book was that the “white” shows are in fact the most universal in their plots and themes. It’s easy to envision an all-black version of, say, The Music Man (a show set in early 20th-century Iowa that the book specifically dismisses for its whiteness), since the story at its heart is about broad themes that could apply to any community. The current Broadway production of Carousel can credibly feature a black man in the white lead role because the show is about the redemptive power of love, not about a “white” experience.

In contrast, a color-blind version of The Color Purple or Dreamgirls (the latter written by a white duo) is unthinkable since such shows are too tied to their blackness to work otherwise. If minority artists and producers could stop their navel-gazing and create stories and characters that exist beyond their racial or ethnic bounds, we might see more minorities on Broadway in shows that all of us can identify with.