A problem like Maria : gender and sexuality in the American musical / by Stacy Wolf.

Author
Wolf, Stacy Ellen [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, ©2002.
Description
xx, 289 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Firestone Library - Gender & Sexuality Studies Research Collection ML2054 .W65 2002 Browse related items Request
    Mendel Music Library - Stacks ML2054 .W65 2002 Browse related items Request
      Mendel Music Library - Stacks ML2054 .W65 2002 Browse related items Request

        Details

        Subject(s)
        Series
        Triangulations [More in this series]
        Summary note
        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-twentiethcentury 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 GypsyAndrews 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.Stacy Wolf is Associate Professor of Theatre and Dance, University of Texas, Austin.
        Bibliographic references
        Includes bibliographical references (p. [239]-274) and index.
        Contents
        • Mary Martin
        • Ethel Merman
        • Julie Andrews
        • Barbra Streisand
        • The sound of music.
        ISBN
        • 0472097725 ((cloth ; : alk. paper))
        • 9780472097722 ((cloth ; : alk. paper))
        • 0472067729 ((paper ; : alk. paper))
        • 9780472067725 ((paper ; : alk. paper))
        SuDoc no.
        MUS1164
        LCCN
        2001008273
        OCLC
        48674538
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