Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical

by Stacy Wolf

From Adelaide in "Guys and Dolls" to Nina in "In the Heights" and Elphaba in "Wicked," female characters in Broadway musicals have belted and crooned their way into the American psyche. In this lively book, Stacy Wolf illuminates the women of American musical theatre - performers, creators, and characters -- from the start of the cold war to the present day, creating a new, feminist history of the genre. Moving from decade to decade, Wolf first highlights the assumptions that circulated about gender and sexuality at the time. She then looks at the leading musicals to stress the key aspects of the plays as they relate to women, and often finds overlooked moments of empowerment for female audience members. The musicals discussed here are among the most beloved in the canon--"West Side Story," "Cabaret," "A Chorus Line," "Phantom of the Opera," and many others--with special emphasis on the blockbuster "Wicked." Along the way, Wolf demonstrates how the musical since the mid-1940s has actually been dominated by women--women onstage, women in the wings, and women offstage as spectators and fans.

Genres: Nonfiction, Theatre, Feminism, History, Art, Adult, School

319 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2011

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

My rating of this book may come from crushed expectations. When I saw this book I thought that it was a dream come true, combining my love of theater with feminist theory. I was disappointed. The author provided some obstacles to my enjoyment of the book. First, she clearly despises the style of the mega musicals and I believe that it influences her analysis of the role of women. Secondly, she evaluates Wicked as a "queer" musical which she very quickly says she is using as a technical term and not to indicate any sexual or romantic relationship but she seems to forget her limitations and continually treats the friendship as romantic. This undermines the concept of platonic love and also keeps her from evaluating the true lesbian relationships in musicals which get very little mention. As with any book not every fact can be included but considering the topic and her evaluation on fandom on broadway it seems odd not to deal with Rent. Lastly, there were some blatant factual errors such as misidentifying song names. This may be a case of too high expectations but I truly needed a book on this topic to be stronger.

[Diana Chabai-Booker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the problems in this book stem from the fact that it desperately needs an update (10 years old at the time I’m reading it), but updating it would negate the author’s thesis, that Wicked is the “exemplar” of the feminist and queer musical. This is before Fun Home and The Prom, but it’s not before Falsettos and Rent and La Cage Aux Folles and could’ve spent a lot of time talking about musicals that have real queer characters, not just coded queer ones, but doesn’t. There are also many inaccuracies (here’s two: the book claims Hello, Dolly! has “nothing to do with marriage”, and says “Bring Him Home” is called “Let Him Live”. Did anyone edit this?). On the other hand, my dislike of this book has fueled my rage into my own research project into the feminist history of musicals. So thanks for that, I guess.

[Emmaline Savidge · Rating 2 out of 5]

Labeling any moment between two women in theater as queer but not discussing the role of queer women in theater except briefly with Celie is definitely a choice. There are also parts of this book that felt very white feminist to me, but the writing in this field is limited so you get what you get sadly.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75⭐️

[Aaron Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book makes clear how badly we need a feminist history of the Broadway musical. This book, however, is not it. In fact, I'm not really sure what Changed for Good is trying to do or say. The chapter on the fifties is about duets; the chapter on the seventies is about ensembles; the chapter on the eighties is about scenery. But it is never clear why. Every reading feels like a stretch, as though the theme was decided and then the musical numbers and shows were chosen afterward and then made to fit the glass slipper by squeezing a heel or severing a toe.

More properly this wants to be a book about Wicked. An entire chapter is devoted to a queer reading of this show, and another chapter addresses the fandom of adolescent and teenage girls who adore Wicked. (I think what strikes me as weirdest about this is that this book does devote roughly 7 pages to The Color Purple, a show that actually has a female protagonist who has sex with another woman.) I found myself wishing the book just gave into its desire to be a book on Wicked, offering readings of L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, the 1939 film, The Wiz, Gregory Maguire's novel, and then finally the musical. Instead, this claims to be a feminist history of Broadway musicals from the 1950s forward, but takes a deep dive only into Wicked. It's a really strange book with, surprisingly, very little to say about the many musicals it describes.

(The factual errors in this book are a whole other story. For example, Oprah Winfrey decidedly did not win an Oscar for playing Sofia in The Color Purple, there is no song called "No Day Like Today" in Rent, neither is there one called "Let Him Live" in Les Misérables.)

[Matt Chisling (MattyandtheBooks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What is this feeling, so sudden and new?"
"... I felt the moment I laid eyes on you?"

When I first learned that a rigorous feminist analysis of Broadway Musicals was published, I immediately snatched up a copy. Chalk it up to Covid-quarantine to finally have the time to sit down and dive into it (9 years later... how shameful!)

Stacy Wolf, a Princeton University professor of theatre, takes a hard look at over fifty years of Broadway Musical history, shining a (harsh) feminist light on many of the beloved musical theatre classics from 1950 through 2010. From shows like "Guys and Dolls" and "Hello, Dolly!" through "Wicked" and "In the Heights," Wolf explores the way that women on-stage are represented, and how they are received by their audiences.

At times dry, but always well-supported, Wolf's book is structured in a systemtic fashion. She examines each decade of the Broadway musical on its own, identifying (usually) one overarching trend for feminist analysis. Whether it's examining the older, single woman of the 1960s musicals, or the women of colour at the center of 2000s musicals, Wolf uses a mix of research from Gender, Performance, and Cultural Studies, as well as Queer Theory, to argue that, even though Broadway Musicals are predominantly consumed by women, we have historically seen problematic representations of women, in particular in the "mega musicals" that are most widely consumed around the world (think Les Miserables... Boy, does she not like that show!) To Wolf, one particular show defies (!) the trends outlined: the Broadway blockbuster, Wicked. The latter third of the book explores Wicked in rich detail by drawing on nearly all the themes outlined in the chapters before. Nerdy Wicked fans, be sure to read this!

Wolf is happy to disagree with the theatre critics through the years, and her criticism of both the shows and their reception is not without bite. Where she lost me, personally, was in two places. I was at odds with Wolf's 1950s chapter, which attempted to queer the golden age musicals in a way that felt forced. On a re-read, I would skip that chapter and move straight into the 1960s, where the analysis feels both more visible and supported. Second, Wolf's arguments can read as quite heavy-handed as biased at times. Her analysis of Wicked, though interesting, seems to conveniently dismiss some major elements of the story, including it's foremost male character. The arguments are ultimately quite well-supported, but a further consideration of some plausible counterarguments could beautifully add to the work. Lastly, I think there are a couple of genre-defining shows, in particular in the 1990s, that simply need to be considered in the overall analysis. To not look at Chicago and Rent in an analysis of the Broadway musical seems to just be missing out.

I'm personally ready for a 2nd edition of this book - Wolf's analysis ends in 2010. Since then, I feel that there are many musicals that feel both inspired by this work and worth examining under its harsh light: Hamilton, Waitress, and The Prom. But, more than anything else, this book points to the desperate need to continue to examine and scrutinize this work, especially given the predominantly female audience that attends Broadway musicals.

[Annie the Lesbrarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this and I’m trying to not take off for how much has changed in the decade plus that the book was written. That being said, I did like the musicals reviewed. I read this to expand my knowledge of musical theatre history and I do think that helped. Great. The con though, I found to actually be some of the scholarly work for the main theses. While some rang true based on personal biases of my own, I didn’t feel that a lot of the main arguments were backed up by queer or feminist theories in the way I wanted them to be. If I was a professor reading this as a paper, there would’ve been several sections that would’ve gotten “evidence?” Notes next to them. Most of the time I thought, “okay I guess I see the point but it seems like a stretch.”

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

need to give this one a good in depth read rather than this quick one for a project but this is fire

[Tettyk]

I was looking for a light, entertaining feminist trip through the history of musical theater, but I found the book unreadable, overly technical, and impossible to follow without deep knowledge of the specific musicals under discussion. It read like a thesis to me.

[Sean Elliot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Changed for Good landed on my reading list out of a serendipitous encounter at work. One student was giving the book as a graduation gift to another and it caught my eye, less out of any personal musical theater interest than my daughter's near-obsession with the genre. Of course musicals have been a part of my cultural experience all my life. My mother was a fan herself and the songs of the classics of musical theater still resonate in my memories. Reading Stacy Wolf's analysis of the evolution of rolls of women in the Broadway musical may take some of the "romance" out of the genre it is still a fascinating read on the subject. Wolf takes a methodical trip through the history of modern musical theater, tackling them decade-by-decade starting with the 1940's, the advent of the genre. Wolf uses just a few musicals from each decade as the examples from which she draws her premise. Each chapter looks at the roles of the female characters, how those roles fit both into the storytelling as well as into the general cultural times in which they originated. She tracks the roles of women, both in their relationships with men as well as the other women in the shows. The vast majority of the analysis does indeed track the heteronormative history of the theater, but she also looks very closely at the evolution of the female-female relationships and how those mirror, at least in some cases, what would be a queer relationship model. Through the '40's and right to the 1990's these were largely symbolic in nature, but she posits the evolutionary track of the relationships indicated at least some cultural change that we've seen since. The final chapters, looking at the 2000's, spends a lot of time focused largely on Wicked, the musical that gives the book its title and cover photo. While the relationship between Elphaba and Glinda in Wicked is not a romantic one, it mirrors such a relationship is many ways similar to how such relationships have progressed over the history of musical theater. In the end Changed for Good is a fascinating look at its primary focus subject. One need not be deeply versed in the language of music and theater to follow the premise of Wolf's argument, but I would suggest that it may help at least a little.

[Bryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very interesting look at the ways that Broadway musicals across the decades have handled women, and I am very glad I read it, but I just wanted more of everything -- more information about the musicals (for the ones I already knew, I often found her plot summaries reductive), a wider range of musicals discussed, more about fan engagement and fan communities (they didn't start with Wicked, which I am sure she knows -- I was in a paper-mail Les Mis fan community in the early 90s, and Rent had enormous fan engagement) -- just more of everything. Which is not the book she chose to write, and I do respect that, but it felt like skimming the surface of a lot of areas I am interested in. I am glad to have read it, though, and I would be so interested to see what she makes of the last decade of musical theatre.

[Shanan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, solid scholarship on a subject that needs even more attention given some of the plays featured in the 2018-2019 Broadway season: “Kiss Me, Kate”, “My Fair Lady” and... “Carousel.” Oh and “Pretty Woman, The Musical” because everything is awful.

[Marissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took a long time to get through this book, and not just because it’s 2020... Maybe that’s on the author, maybe that’s on me choosing a painful time to read about live theatre, but in any case, this did not bring me the joy that academic explorations of pop culture usually do...!

[Caleb Boyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful. Particularly liked the final chapter on girl fandom.

[Adrienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and excellent points brought up. Just a dry read.

[Becca Shulbank-Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

We read this for a class I took on women and the American musical theater and I LOVED it.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.4

[Natalie Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that I was originally going to skim for information to help with my essay, but I ended up reading the entire book. This book allows you to see the shows that you are familiar with and may even love through fresh eyes and explores how the role of women changed over the last few years. It is highly informative and explores the history of women in musical theatre.

[Lizzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stellar weaving of feminist theory with the history of the Broadway musical, tracing changes and connections in both. Please, please read this book.

[MH · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent, readable performance study of how women are created and performed in Broadway musicals, from the 50s to the present. Wolf isn't trying to write a thorough history - her chapter on the 80s includes only two shows - but rather she tracks how the female body on stage makes meaning for the audience, from female duets to lone divas to the centerpiece of her book (and her theorizing), Wicked, which uses the construction of a traditional Rodgers and Hammerstein show to tell the story of two female friends, and how those familiar theatrical tropes effect audience understanding and expectation. Wolf is really clear in her thinking and her writing, and her skill combined with her subject matter makes this one of the most enjoyable pieces of critical theory I've ever read.

[Alyx · Rating 4 out of 5]

Are you a feminist musical theater nerd? Then this book is *fun*. Stacy Wolf parallels America's sociopolitical history with the evolution of the Broadway musical from the 1950s to present. Would've liked greater consistency with technical and industrial concerns, which she only really talks about in her chapter on the 1980s, feminist backlash, and the megamusical. Would've also liked more discussion about film adaptation and pop stardom, as this would have offered some interesting race and gender issues to complicate her thesis. Nonetheless, a fun read and a needed intervention.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars
I really enjoyed this book! It is a fascinating look into the role of women throughout broadway history. My only qualm with it is the amount it dwelled on the queer aspect of the relationship between Elphaba and Galinda rather than also examining their platonic relationship. Still well worth the read!