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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
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Mendel Music Library - Stacks
ML2054 .W65 2002
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Mendel Music Library - Stacks
ML2054 .W65 2002
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Details
Subject(s)
Musicals
—
United States
—
History and criticism
[Browse]
Lesbians and musicals
—
United States
[Browse]
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.
Show 2 more Contents items
ISBN
0472097725 ((cloth ; : alk. paper))
9780472097722 ((cloth ; : alk. paper))
0472067729 ((paper ; : alk. paper))
9780472067725 ((paper ; : alk. paper))
SuDoc no.
MUS1164
LCCN
2001008273
OCLC
48674538
Statement on language in description
Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage.
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A problem like Maria : gender and sexuality in the American musical / by Stacy Wolf.
id
SCSB-11860779