Musical Theatre, Representation, and You
One thing for me that always made me enjoy musical theatre is it's representation. I have a theory that wherever movies and tv are in terms of representation, musical theatre is a decade ahead of them. From people of color to the LGBTQ+ community, musical theatre celebrates minorities and oppressed communities.
Today, musical theatre pioneering in diversity is beautiful, but it's origin is far darker. In the 1800’s, Irish immigrants faced mass waves of racism and xenophobia in the US. These immigrants faced heavy discrimination, and often didn’t receive any job opportunities. As a result, they were forced to find other ways to get money. Since upper-class citizens enjoyed theatre, but never wanted to demean themselves to acting, immigrants realized that singing and acting could be their way out of poverty. Very soon, numerous immigrants began performing acts of musical theatre.
One major example is Irving Berlin, a Russian immigrant who lived most of his life in poverty. However, he soon began composing music, and wrote entire musical theatre shows. This allowed him to rise up from a newspaper boy (carrying that banner) who sang on his paper route to an extremely famous figure known for writing iconic shows such as ‘Annie get your gun’. His songs remain culturally relevant to this day, almost everyone who was on the internet around 6-7 years ago probably remembers the almost incessant covers of ‘Anything you can do’, a song written by Irving Berlin.
Prevailing stereotypes of musical theatre fans as being a part of the LGBTQ+ community are something that exists even today, particularly for men. I always wondered why this was, why is singing and acting straight until it's combined? Well, that has a lot to do with musical theatre's seedier origins. Going way back to the beginning of musical theatre as we know it, morality codes like the Hayes law restrict representation on screen and those who don't fit into the norm of society are often kicked out, treated harshly and even persecuted. In these days, many outcasts from society felt welcomed on stage, a trend that continues to this day. While this has led to some harsh stereotypes against people, particularly men who enjoy musical theatre, it has largely formed safe spaces for people who desperately needed it. Many famous composers such as Cole Porter were able to find a community that supported them even when the rest of the world shunned them.
Finally, in the modern day, many actors with disabilities have received opportunities from musical theatre. Due to the suspension of disbelief that comes with the live performance, directors can get away with casting out of character. As a result, Broadway often finds many disabled actors playing non-disabled characters without the audience finding it too odd. The same can be said for actors of color. Colorblind casting is much easier in live musical theatre, since there is less expectation of realism, given the fact that nobody actually sings out loud in real life (unless you’re me). This gives so many more opportunities to actors that otherwise wouldn’t get it. The backlash about the Queen Charlotte being played by a black woman exemplifies this so much, Hamilton has silently been casting Thomas Jefferson, a literal slave owner, as a black man. I mean, what other fandom would be able to come up with Hatsune Miku Jefferson Binder? Surely not a movie, where the up-close-and-personal filming angle means it would be impossible to get away with casting so widely out of character. Even a show like Oklahoma! featured Ali Stoker singing out "Cain't Say No" while wheeling herself across the stage, the the experience is so immersive it's easy to miss that this wasn't even a technology available in Oklahoma in 1906.
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| Hamilton Curtain Call *wipes away tears* |
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