Broadway Bodies: A Critical History of Conformity

— —

Ryan Donovan (Assistant Professor of Theater Studies, Assistant Professor of Theater Studies, Duke University)

Broadway Bodies

A Critical History of Conformity

Ryan Donovan (Assistant Professor of Theater Studies, Assistant Professor of Theater Studies, Duke University)

$77.95

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Oxford University Press Inc
26 June 2023

Theatre Studies; Music reviews & criticism; Musicals; Ethics & moral philosophy; Gender studies, gender groups

"Broadway has body issues. What is a Broadway Body? Broadway has long preserved the ideology of the ""Broadway Body"": the hyper-fit, exceptionally able, triple-threat performer who represents how Broadway musicals favor certain kinds of bodies. Casting is always a political act, situated within a power structure that gives preference to the Broadway Body. In Broadway Bodies, author Ryan Donovan explores how ability, sexuality, and size intersect with gender, race, and ethnicity in casting and performance. To understand these intersectional relationships, he poses a series of questions: Why did A Chorus Line, a show that sought to individuate dancers, inevitably make dancers indistinguishable? How does the use of fat suits in musicals like Dreamgirls and Hairspray stigmatize fatness? What were the political implications of casting two straight actors as the gay couple in La Cage aux Folles in 1983? How did deaf actors change the sound of musicals in Deaf West's Broadway revivals? Whose bodies does Broadway cast and whose does it cast aside? In answering these questions, Broadway Bodies tells a history of Broadway's inclusion of various forms of embodied difference while revealing its simultaneous ambivalence toward non-conforming bodies."

By: Ryan Donovan (Assistant Professor of Theater Studies Assistant Professor of Theater Studies Duke University)
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 156mm, Width: 235mm, Spine: 22mm
Weight: 458g
ISBN: 9780197551080
ISBN 10: 0197551084
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 26 June 2023
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

"Part I: Broadway Bodies Introduction: The Broadway Body 1. ""I Saw What They Were Hiring"": Casting and Recasting A Chorus Line Part II: Size 2. Dreamgirls, Size, and the Body Politics of Padding 3. ""Must Be Heavyset"": Casting Fat Women in Broadway Musicals Part III: Sexuality 4. La Cage aux Folles and Playing Gay 5. ""Keeping It Gay"" on The Great White Way Part IV: Ability 6. Deaf West's Awakening of Broadway 7. Musicals, Physical Difference, and Disability Epilogue: Recasting Broadway Bibliography Index"

Ryan Donovan is Assistant Professor of Theater Studies at Duke University. He is author of Queer Approaches in Musical Theatre and co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Musical Theatre.

Reviews for Broadway Bodies: A Critical History of Conformity

Ryan Donovan's fascinating and groundbreaking book explores what Broadway musical theatre hides in plain sight: bodies on stage and the politics of casting some bodies and not others. Through impeccable historical research, probing interviews, incisive performance analysis, and vivid firsthand experience, Donovan offers a new history of Broadway musicals that shines a light on the industry's troubling and often shocking casting practices. This essential-reading volume unearths how size, ability, and sexuality delimit the 'Broadway body' and mask casting's misogyny, racism, ableism, and fat phobia. * Stacy Wolf, Princeton University * Ryan Donovan's book immediately shifts the conversation on how we talk about musical theatre. Broadway Bodies is deeply knowledgeable, politically astute, and highly readable. I loved the book's clarity and purpose—this is a must-read for theatre and performance scholars and for anyone who cares about American theatre. * David Roman, University of Southern California *