| Why do so many works of musical theater, which express characters and ideas through fantastical song and dance, portray stories rooted in the lives of real people? What is the nature of the relationship between those people and the onstage characters and songs they create? Parsing the relationship between contemporary musical theater and the people behind it, i.e. its composers, lyricists, and performers, is a complex endeavor. Each musical possesses a dynamic production story, with a host of contributors and sources of inspiration. However, upon closer examination, discernable trends emerge. In particular, numerous contemporary musicals thrive on the interaction of three elements: the presence of queer characters, biographical source material, and the backdrop of New York City.;Stage(d) Communities traces these three themes over roughly forty years of American musical theater history, from the mid-1960s to the early twenty-first century. Through music analysis, historical research, and ethnographic interviews, the dissertation examines the modes of production, performance, and reception endemic to late twentieth-century musicals. Each chapter focuses on specific musicals including Hair, A Chorus Line, La Cage aux Folles, Falsettos, Rent, and Avenue Q.;Each of the above musicals took one step further in the "coming out of the musical," which comprises a trajectory of increased visibility and audibility of queer subjectivities on the stage This trend is indicative of the emergence of a crucial demographic behind the production of the genre. Queer artists had long found solace in the production and reception of musicals, and these shows allowed these individuals to be seen and heard under the lights of mainstream Broadway. In addition, these musicals present a range of sexual identities and experiences, from the tragic to the comic. In conclusion, it becomes evident that many musicals portray biographically inspired stories in an effort to balance subject matter and medium of expression. High-stakes issues such as AIDS and homophobia demand expression in a seemingly over-the-top and almost unbelievable manner: musical theater song and performance. |
