A
Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical
(Triangulations: Lesbian/Gay/Queer Theater/Drama/Performance)
(Book description)
Subverting assumptions that American musical theater is
steeped in nostalgia, cheap sentiment, misogyny, and homophobia, this book
shows how musicals of the 1950s and early 1960s celebrated strong women
characters who defied the era's gender expectations. A Problem Like Maria reexamines
the roles, careers, and performances of four of musical theater's greatest
stars-Mary Martin, Ethel Merman, Julie Andrews, and Barbra Streisand-through a
lesbian feminist lens. Focusing on both star persona and performance, Stacy
Wolf argues that each of her subjects deftly crafted characters (both on and
offstage) whose defiance of the norms of mid-twentieth century femininity had
immediate appeal to spectators on the ideological and sexual margins, yet could
still play in Peoria.Chapter by chapter, the book analyzes the stars' best-known and best-loved roles, including Martin as Nellie in South Pacific, Merman as Momma Rose in Gypsy Andrews as Eliza in My Fair Lady and Guinevere in Camelot, and Streisand as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. The final chapter scrutinizes the Broadway and film versions of The Sound of Music, illuminating its place in the hearts of lesbian spectators and the "delicious queerness" of Andrews's troublesome nun. As the first feminist and lesbian study of the American Broadway musical, A Problem Like Maria is a groundbreaking contribution to feminist studies, queer studies, and American studies and a delight for fans of musical theater.
-Courtesy of A Problem Like Maria: Gender
and Sexuality in the American Musical (Triangulations: Lesbian/Gay/Queer
Theater/Drama/Performance)
-Written by Michael Herman
-Written by Michael Herman
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