Broadway bodies : a critical history of conformity / Ryan Donovan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Donovan, Ryan, author.

Contributor:

Alfred Reginald Allen Memorial Fund of The Savoy Company.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Musicals--Casting.

Musicals.

Musicals--Auditions.

Physical-appearance-based bias.

Musicals--Political aspects.

Musicals--New York (State)--New York--20th century--History and criticism.

Musicals--New York (State)--New York--21st century--History and criticism.

Broadway (New York, N.Y.)--History--20th century.

Broadway (New York, N.Y.).

Broadway (New York, N.Y.)--History--21st century.

New York (State)--New York.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 316 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2023]

Summary:

"The Broadway Body I lied about my height on my résumé the entire time I was a dancer, though in truth I don't think the extra inch ever actually made a difference. In the US, 5'6" still reads as short for a man no matter how you slice it. The reason for my deception was that height was often the reason I was disqualified: choreographers often wanted taller male dancers for the ensemble and listed a minimum height requirement (often 5'11" and up) in the casting breakdown. Being disqualified before I could even set foot in the audition because I possessed an unchangeable physical characteristic that often made me unemployable in the industry. I was learning an object lesson in Broadway's body politics-and, of course, had I not been a white cisgender nondisabled man, the barriers to employment would have been compounded even further. I wasn't alone in feeling caught in a catch-22. Not being cast because of your appearance, or "type" in industry lingo, is casting's status quo. The casting process openly discriminates based upon appearance. This truism even made its way into a song cut from A Chorus Line (1975) called "Broadway Boogie Woogie," which comically lists all of the reasons one might not be cast: "I'm much too tall, much too short, much too thin/Much too fat, much too young for the role/I sing too high, sing too low, sing too loud." Funny Girl (1964) put it even more bluntly: "If a Girl Isn't Pretty/Like a Miss Atlantic City/She should dump the stage/And try another route"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: pt. I BROADWAY BODIES

1. "I Saw What They Were Hiring": Casting and Recasting A Chorus Line

pt. II SIZE

2. Dreamgirls, Size, and the Body Politics of Padding

3. "Must Be Heavyset": Casting Fat Women in Broadway Musicals

pt. III SEXUALITY

4. La Cage aux Folks and Playing Gay

5. "Keeping It Gay" on The Great White Way

pt. IV ABILITY

6. Deaf West's Awakening of Broadway

7. Musicals, Physical Difference, and Disability.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 275-302) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alfred Reginald Allen Memorial Fund of The Savoy Company.

Other Format:

Online version: Donovan, Ryan. Broadway bodies

ISBN:

9780197551073

0197551076

9780197551080

0197551084

OCLC:

1347269266

Publisher Number:

99993395522