{"id":890,"date":"2020-01-06T10:17:25","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T10:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/?p=890"},"modified":"2026-06-22T11:19:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T11:19:00","slug":"season-of-discontent-to-seasons-of-love-american-theatre-in-a-time-of-metoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/season-of-discontent-to-seasons-of-love-american-theatre-in-a-time-of-metoo\/","title":{"rendered":"Season of Discontent to \u201cSeasons of Love\u201d: Broadway Musicals in a Time of #MeToo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jeffrey Eric Jenkins<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In the angry social and political climate pervasive during the 2017-18 theatre season in New York, the rise of the #MeToo movement reawakened a sense that justice was long overdue for those who suffered sexual harassment and worse. Meanwhile, Broadway struggled to present classic (and new) musical works that were fraught with negative stereotypes. At mid-season, a shooting at a high school in Florida galvanized activists–and theatre students–in ways that offered some small sense of hope for the future.
Keywords<\/strong>: Musical theatre, Broadway musicals, #MeToo, Parkland shooting, Carousel<\/span>, My Fair Lady<\/span>, Tootsie<\/span>, Kiss Me<\/span>, Kate<\/span>, #NeverAgain<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We Americans are unhappy. We are not happy about America. We are not happy about ourselves in relation to America. We are nervous\u2014or gloomy\u2014or apathetic.[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Henry Luce published \u201cThe\nAmerican Century\u201d in Life<\/em> magazine in\nFebruary 1941, it was meant as a clarion call for the United States to take its\nplace among nations as a promoter of freedom and defender of liberty. In Luce\u2019s\nessay, one may discern echoes of Woodrow Wilson\u2019s 1917 speech to Congress as\nthe United States prepared for war to make the world \u201csafe for democracy.\u201d\nPresident Wilson argued:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and freedom of nations can make them.[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luce\u2019s \u201cAmerican Century\u201d essay, published nearly a year before the United States\u2019 entry into World War II, struck a resonant chord with the American public. After publication in Luce\u2019s popular magazine, Life<\/em>, tens of thousands of copies of the essay were reprinted in pamphlet form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is worth noting that, despite the\nessay\u2019s popularity, it arose at a time when isolationism was the rule of the\nday as the forces of fascist imperialism arrayed themselves across the globe.\n\u201cAmerica first,\u201d which was a key element in the inaugural speech and policies\nof President Donald J. Trump, had its deepest roots in the resistance to\nAmerican involvement in World War II through the America First Committee, a\nwidely popular group later condemned as anti-Semitic and pro-fascist.[3]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the ensuing decades, the idea of\nAmerican Century came to represent much more than Luce\u2019s 1941 interventionist\nideal, which was disseminated as the country looked warily at events unfolding\nin Europe and across Asia. \u201cAmerican Century\u201d evolved into a spirit of noblesse oblige<\/em>, perhaps lodged in\nWoodrow Wilson\u2019s pre-World War I speech, which is no small irony given the\npost-World War II myths America has constructed about democracy, meritocracy\nand upward mobility. When Luce died in 1967, many of his ideals about\ninternational engagement had come to fruition to the extent that the United\nStates was enmeshed in the Vietnam War, a quagmire that would destroy the president,\nLyndon B. Johnson, who had otherwise led the country toward more racial justice\nand social equality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do the interventionist theories\nof a powerful publisher in the mid-twentieth century have to do with tolerance\nand intolerance in American theatre?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cultural\nIntolerance(s)<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

It seems fitting that the beginning of Luce\u2019s imperial call from the 1940s describes the American mood of today\u2014except, perhaps, for that part about \u201capathy.\u201d There has always been a tension between tolerance and intolerance in American culture. People who escaped England in order to worship as they saw fit planted the seeds of the country in Massachusetts. After they landed in America, however, those same settlers oppressed others who did not conform to newly established religious codes. So \u201cfreedom of religion\u201d in those early days meant \u201cmy freedom of religion, not yours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who advocate for democratic freedoms today may be often shocked by raw, uncivil political behavior in the United States. But there is a long history in our pluralistic culture of rage at those who might be identified as the \u201cother.\u201d It was readily apparent when white nationalists marched in 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia, chanting, among other things, \u201cThe Jews will not replace us. Blacks will not replace us. Immigrants will not replace us.\u201d It may be that the current president has given license, to those who enjoy the privileges of being white, to rage at those who seek equity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playwright Tony Kushner, author of Angels in America<\/em>, addressed some of\nthese issues in a 1993 essay on tolerance. Virtually all of his concerns are as\nvital today as they were more than 25 years ago, when he wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tolerance has its uses, but not all of them are good. It seems to me that frequently when people are asked to tolerate one another, something is wrong that Tolerance will not fix. Tolerance as a virtue derives from the humanist notion that we are all, as the old saying goes, brothers under the skin; and in this bland, unobjectionable assertion is much that can be objected to. We are divided not simply by \u201cintolerance\u201d but by brutal discrepancies in wealth and power; the qualities that distinguish us from each other are not simply surface irrelevancies but our histories and cultures; and we aren\u2019t all \u201cbrothers.\u201d . . . Toleration is necessary when power is unequal; if you have power, you will not need to be tolerated.[4]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
American Angel: Tony Kushner, 2016. Photo: Rii Schroer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Season of\nDiscontent<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, during a talk on theatre and\npopulism at a conference in Tbilisi, Georgia, I expressed concern that a rising\npopulation of angry artists\u2014some well-established\u2014sought to overthrow whatever\nstood in their paths, including theatre critics who write reviews deemed\nunacceptable because a reviewer is alleged to be biased, bigoted or otherwise\ndiscriminatory toward underrepresented populations. Indeed, as that 2017\u201318\n\u201cseason of discontent\u201d gave way to the 2018\u201319 season, one New York Times<\/em> critic found himself apologizing for snide remarks\nmade about gender fluidity in a musical that toyed with gender conventions.[5]<\/sup><\/a> That story is\nbeyond the scope of this essay, but it is informed by the cultural derangement\nin which we currently find our \u201cAmerican\u201d selves. Before exploring those\ntensions and the way they play out in American theatre today, it must be first\nacknowledged how dramatically the cultural landscape has shifted in the United\nStates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just hours after the conference on theatre and populism in Tbilisi, the New York Times<\/em> published a massive expos\u00e9 on film producer Harvey Weinstein alleging a consistent pattern of sexually abusive behavior that included various allegations of assault and rape.[6]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within weeks, allegations and outrage\nmounted against Weinstein, which led to his ouster from the film company he\nfounded and his ostracism from every organization with which he had been\naffiliated. Across the nation, a dam had burst as women in every walk of life\nwere suddenly, belatedly given voice and agency. Many famous, powerful men who\nhad taken advantage of those over whom they had power found their careers swept\naway by the rising tide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On October 15, about ten days after\nthe Weinstein article, performer Alyssa Milano tweeted the suggestion that\ncreated the now-famous hash tag, which was an outgrowth of the \u201cMe Too\nMovement\u201d created by community organizer Tarana Burke in 2006. In the ensuing\nmonths, those who faced a reckoning in wave after wave of #MeToo revelations\nincluded a litany of well-known men in the media, the arts and in politics.[7]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

#NeverAgain<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

From the perspective of theatre\ncritics, of course, it is likely every season could be viewed as a \u201cseason of\ndiscontent.\u201d But there was something special about 2017\u201318. Maybe it had\nsomething to do with fact that the President of the United States was known to\nbe a serial abuser of women and was on tape boasting about an assaultive\nprowess conferred on him by virtue of the fact that he is famous. These are not\nso-called \u201calternative facts.\u201d They are truths that are verifiable.[8]<\/sup><\/a> Perhaps the\nanger of artists had something to do with language that emboldened bigots to be\nmore public in their comments and actions.[9]<\/sup><\/a> Certainly, it is\ndifficult to imagine another president who could equivocate before finally\ncondemning white supremacists and neo-Nazis after a deadly rally in\nCharlottesville, Virginia.[10]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was during such a roiling cultural moment that the 2017\u201318 theatre season unfolded. Tensions were heightened mid-season by a 2018 Valentine\u2019s Day shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. During the past decade, there had been a steady, and alarming, increase in the number of shootings at K-12 schools. In 2018, there were 116 of these violent events, well more than double the previous year. There was a slight decline in 2019, but that year’s 111 school shootings were still more than double the number from 2017. Combined, 2018 and 2019 account for nearly half of all school shootings in the past ten years, which may be testament to a culture spiraling violently out of control under unstable leadership. Before 2018, the previous peak since 2010 was 54 school shootings in 2017, the first year of the current presidential administration.[11]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
School Shooting Incidents by Year, 2010-19. Graph: Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the Naval Postgraduate School, 2020<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The horrific Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, which claimed the lives of 17 students and staff, became the deadliest high school shooting in American history as it propelled a group of Parkland high-school students into the spotlight when they demanded a safe, secure, and gun-free educational environment. The young people were generally calm, composed, and well-spoken when addressing the media. They were immediately attacked by elements of right-wing media as \u201cprofessionals\u201d brought in as \u201ccrisis actors.\u201d The claim was merely a conspiracy theory and it was quickly debunked, yet it continued to find a propagative audience among online entities\u2014one is reluctant to call them \u201cpeople,\u201d or even \u201ctrolls,\u201d given the unabashed falsehoods they spread in the interest of undermining verifiable information.[12]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attacks on the student activists,\nwhose rallying cry became \u201c#Never Again,\u201d were ultimately weakened by the\nstudents\u2019 wise use of social media, which unleashed a protest movement that\nspread throughout the land. The movement culminated in \u201cMarch for Our Lives\u201d\nrallies on March 24, 2018, in Washington, DC, and throughout the country when\nthe students decided that asking for safety in schools should be a non-partisan\nconcept.[13]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subject or\nObject?<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

It was not long after the Parkland\nshooting that a rising issue of gender politics caught the attention of Michael\nPaulson, theatre reporter of the New York\nTimes<\/em>. Paulson noted that three planned major revivals of classic Broadway\nmusicals had domestic abuse and subservient female roles at their core:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Billy Bigelow hits Julie Jordan. Henry Higgins molds Eliza Doolittle. Fred tames Lilli. And Edward rescues Vivian. . . . Amid a national reckoning with sexual harassment and misconduct, Broadway is mounting a cluster of musicals this season and next that, some theatergoers already contend, romanticize problematic relationships between women and men.[14]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1945 musical Carousel<\/em>, by the famed team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, may have been the most problematic of the 2018 lot with a leading male character, Billy Bigelow, who hits his wife when he cannot reason with her. Carousel <\/em>produces an unsettling #MeToo paradox in that the musical consistently discomfits its audience even as it demonstrates an extraordinary power to move and uplift its spectators.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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No Hitting: Jessie Mueller and Joshua Henry in Carousel<\/em>, 2018. Photo: Julieta Cervantes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Carousel<\/em> has long been considered a\n\u201cproblem work,\u201d due to its inherent thematic lodged in domestic violence. It is\nnot merely that Billy hits his wife, Julie, but that the violent act\u2014although\nsurely repugnant even when it was employed in the underlying source material of\nFerenc Moln\u00e1r\u2019s 1909 Liliom<\/em>\u2014comes\nvery nearly to symbolize an act of love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the denouement, heavenly forces\nfinally forgive the dead Billy when he finds a way to let his daughter know\nthat she is loved and that his spirit lives on in her. In the process of doing\nso, however, Billy appears before his daughter to talk with her\u2014and then slaps\nher when she disagrees with him. According to critic Laurie Winer, director\nJack O\u2019Brien deleted controversial dialogue from the 2018 production that\nessentially excused Billy\u2019s violence as not hurtful. Even that change to the\nscript, however, did not fully undermine the musical\u2019s ability to induce\nwincing, cringing and verbal interjections from the audience in response to\nBilly\u2019s abusive behavior.[15]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2018 production, Billy was\nplayed by Joshua Henry, a superb African American singer and actor\u2014which\ncreated an even more tension-filled dynamic because such stereotypical\nbrutality then came with a racial component. The result was a work of enormous\nemotional power that critics embraced in delicate fashion so as not to appear\nto celebrate domestic violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The musical asks its audience to consider whether it is possible to redeem oneself through eventual good actions. In America, the land of forgiveness, of second chances and third acts, this question lingered like a stale aroma\u2014despite being as close to a perfect production of the musical as its audience is likely to see. One wonders when (or if) it might have another such high-profile production. And one is made to ponder what might happen to forgiveness and second chances in a culture that is, across the spectrum, \u201cmad as hell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to concerns raised by\nBilly Bigelow\u2019s onstage actions, there was a #MeToo scandal that tainted Carousel<\/em> when the celebrated ballet\ndancer Amar Ramasar, who brilliantly performed the role of villainous Jigger\nCraigin in Carousel<\/em>, was fired from\nthe prestigious New York City Ballet the day before Carousel<\/em> closed on Broadway. Ramasar was alleged to have\nparticipated in swapping sexually explicit photos of female dancers with other\nCity Ballet male dancers, one of whom was also terminated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This news came several months after\nballet master Peter Martins was pressed to retire from City Ballet in the wake\nof allegations of sexual harassment against him, which Martins vehemently\ndenied and the company\u2019s board took pains to state publicly that it had not\ncorroborated allegations against the former leader. In the new world where the\nvoices of female victims were being heard (and believed), it is interesting to\nnote how City Ballet made one controversy disappear while overstepping its\nauthority in another case.[16]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the dancers\u2019 union at the time of the firing, there would be a challenge to the dismissals, which the union said were due \u201centirely to non-work related activity and do not rise to the level of \u2018just cause\u2019 termination.\u201d In April 2019, the ballet company was ordered to reinstate the terminated dancers following an arbitration process that was closely watched by other arts companies for potential precedents that might be set. Ramasar stated he would return to the company after receiving mandatory counseling. He continues to be a figure of controversy as this essay is published.[17]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Rain in Spain: Harry Hadden-Paton and Lauren Ambrose in My Fair Lady<\/em>, 2018. Photo: Joan Marcus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It was not just Carousel<\/em> that raised eyebrows with its challenging themes and\npotential embarrassments in human resources: revivals of My Fair Lady<\/em> and Kiss Me,\nKate <\/em>were also on the Broadway agenda. As Paulson noted in the Times<\/em>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

each of the female protagonists [in these works] has her own strength\u2014strength that in some cases changes the men in their lives. But elements of the stories\u2014and the fact that all four productions are being directed and choreographed by men\u2014are prompting new scrutiny at this #MeToo moment.[18]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It became apparent that these retrograde works not only grated on the nerves of artists for sociopolitical reasons: the creative staffing was also frustrating. Paulson quoted a tweet from several months earlier in which composer Georgia Stitt lamented:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With respect to the creatives who will be employed by these projects, I will say I\u2019m concerned about a Broadway season that includes Pretty Woman<\/span>, Carousel<\/span> and My Fair Lady<\/span> all at the same time. . . . [I]s the correct message really \u201cwomen are there to be rescued\u201d?[19]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contrary to what Stitt asserted, the\nthree productions were spread over the breadth of two seasons, but her point\nremains valid. Male characters narratively drive the three musicals Stitt\nreferenced, despite a purported female subjectivity present in them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carousel<\/em> and My Fair Lady<\/em> opened a week apart in spring 2018. Despite being far the superior work, Carousel<\/em> survived only through the summer and closed in September. Director Bartlet Sher\u2019s My Fair Lady<\/em>, on the other hand, managed a respectable run of nearly fifteen months and 509 performances. Director O\u2019Brien\u2019s Carousel<\/em> challenged its audience not to look away from the unseemly lives of working-class New Englanders: boy meets girl, girl gets pregnant, both lose their jobs, boy commits suicide, ghost of boy seeks redemption. My Fair Lady<\/em>, however, in which an older member of the upper class wagers that he can train a grubby young girl to become a presentable lady, was made more palatable by casting actors who were not so different in age, which eliminated some of the creepy factor inherent in such a relationship. In its final moments, as critic Chris Jones noted in the Chicago Tribune<\/em>, \u201cthe famous final scene of the production will send shivers down the spine of anyone who has ever gone back to the home of an old lover to pick up their things. It is just that mutually unpleasant.\u201d[20]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eliza Doolittle emerges from the\nscene, breaks the fourth wall and departs through the audience toward\nwho-knows-where, or what. The production held any notions of \u201clove\u201d at a\ndistance (or embraced them ironically) and survived long enough to see a change\nof several key cast members before its closure in the summer of 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, the questions raised by\ncomposer Stitt resonated. Why were the creative teams for these shows led my\nmen? Would there not be a value in having a woman director or choreographer?\nMight not a woman\u2019s perspective in the conceptual stages have informed issues\ndifferently? In an American Theatre <\/em>article\nthat used the term \u201cseason of discontent\u201d in its subtitle, Diep Tran examined\n\u201cthe scarcity of women on the creative teams.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tran was particularly trenchant in one\npassage of her article:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we\u2019re going to stage these retrograde works and \u201creinvent\u201d them for the 21st century, why are men the only ones being given the opportunity to do the rethinking\u2014to give these old properties a \u201cfeminist twist\u201d? Are male artists the only ones who get to define feminism in theatre in 2018?[21]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond \u201cDiscontent\u201d<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

We are well beyond that 2017\u201318 \u201cseason of discontent\u201d now, but the discontent showed little sign of abating as 2018 continued to unfold. Although Pretty Woman<\/em> opened a couple of months after the end of 2017\u201318 season, it also reflects composer Stitt\u2019s comments about creative staffing. The musical is based on the 1990 Richard Gere film of the same name that made Julia Roberts a star and earned $463 million globally at the box office. The Broadway production opened to lukewarm reviews, likely due to the musical’s virtual moment-by-moment duplication of the film, in addition to its tacky \u201cprostitute and prince rescue one another\u201d conceit. Despite critical digs, however, it routinely operated at more than 90 percent capacity for its first six months. These early numbers probably reflect advance ticket sales as opposed to the impact of reviews.[22]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Happy Hooker: Samantha Barks and Andy Karl, at left, in Pretty Woman<\/em>, 2018. Photo: Matthew Murphy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A visit to the production in\nmid-October 2018 revealed a strong appetite by (some) women for the\nprostitute-to-princess dynamic. The audience appeared to be overwhelmingly\nfemale, with young women in their twenties and thirties filling the\nless-expensive seats of the balcony. It was as unsettling a sight as is Pretty Woman<\/em>\u2019s notion of a romantic\nideal. The production played for slightly more than a year, but, after the\nenthusiasm of the first few months, the musical underperformed financially for\nthe rest of its run. Perhaps Broadway\u2019s penchant for nostalgia needs an\nattitude adjustment in an era when discontent has become the \u201cnew normal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It should be clear, then, that Stitt\u2019s frustration deserves the focus of the theatre industry. Let Linda Loman\u2019s cri de coeur<\/em> be turned to another purpose: perhaps \u201cattention must be paid\u201d to someone other than a man. By the time Kiss Me, Kate<\/em> opened in March 2019, the #MeToo  movement was well into its second year as a cause c\u00e9l\u00e8bre<\/em> and at least a modicum of attention was paid to the gender topics in play. The 1948 musical adaptation of Shakespeare\u2019s The Taming of the Shrew<\/em>, by Cole Porter and Sam and Bella Spewack, received a bit of a literary facelift before it met its audience.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Not Me Too: Kelli O\u2019Hara and Will Chase in Kiss Me, Kate<\/em>, 2019. Photo: Joan Marcus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Amanda Green, a composer and lyricist\nwith several Broadway credits, was hired to provide \u201cadditional material\u201d to\nthe production. Those additions included changing outdated, sexist language and\notherwise softening the battle of the sexes for consumption in the Age of\nTrump. The Broadway critics practically breathed a collective sigh of relief\nthat, as Peter Marks of the Washington\nPost<\/em> put it, the \u201ccringe factor\u201d was mostly kept \u201cat bay.\u201d The great Kelli\nO\u2019Hara is always a wonder to behold with her lush, seemingly effortless\nsoprano, but the attempt to achieve more gender parity held much of the\nromantic chemistry between the leads at arm\u2019s length, which left one wondering:\nWhy bother?[23]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few weeks after Kiss Me, Kate<\/em> made its latest Broadway bow, a musical version of another film opened with Tootsie<\/em>, which starred Dustin Hoffman in the 1982 original. In a related twist, several women had marked Hoffman as a serial harasser not long after the initial allegations about Weinstein in 2017. Hoffman apologized after the first allegation, but others arose in the weeks to follow.[24]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The musical by composer-lyricist David\nYazbek and librettist Robert Horn re-invented the film\u2019s premise slightly by\nmaking the story about a theatre actor who cannot find work\u2014because he is a\ndifficult collaborator\u2014until he dresses as a woman. Mindful of the #MeToo\nmoment in which it was being developed, the again-all-male creative team\nmanaged to cobble a work that gave critics a laugh\u2014a more or less appropriate\nlaugh, that is.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Good Man Gown: Santino Fontana in Tootsie<\/em>, 2019. Photo: Matthew Murphy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

New York\nTimes <\/em>critic\nJesse Green plucked the right notes when he wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me tell you instead what\u2019s right. It\u2019s a musical. And it\u2019s a comedy . . . That might seem like faint praise. But over the decades, the genre that brought us Guys and Dolls<\/span> has withered into a damp tangle of wan jokes floating in a slick of ditties. With few exceptions . . . musical comedies today are comedic only in the sense that the protagonist doesn\u2019t croak, and musical only in the sense that he does.[25]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFaint praise,\u201d indeed. The production went on to receive Tony Awards for its joke-filled book and for Santino Fontana\u2019s bravura performance as the lead, but it never caught on fully with audiences and closed in January 2020 after fewer than nine months. One cannot help but wonder what will be the next bit of retrograde nostalgia to be converted into a “new” museum piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving On<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

As the 2017\u201318 season of discontent in\nthe era of #MeToo drew to a close, the Broadway theatre community reached out\nto the students at the high school in Parkland, Florida, where the violent\nmassacre had occurred. A group of the students were invited to join the Tony\nAwards broadcast and to perform a song from Jonathan Larsen\u2019s Pulitzer\nPrize-winning musical, Rent<\/em>. The\nnumber they chose was the now-classic \u201cSeasons of Love,\u201d which evolved in their\nperformance from a lovely standard to an anthem about the healing possibility\nof the theatre. It is safe to say that there was not a dry eye to be found by\nanyone watching the broadcast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the passion and the performance of these\nteenagers, the discontents of the season melted a little and seemed to offer\nhope for the future as we grapple with difficult challenges. Amid the political\nand social chaos of the past several years, a glimmer of hope provided by a\ngroup of high-school students performing a theatrical anthem on national\ntelevision is not the likely antidote to what ails us. It simply lets us lift\nour eyes and our hearts for a few minutes. Anger and vilification all along the\npolitical spectrum seems aimed to incite civil strife, to create confusion that\nallows democracy and free expression to be consistently undermined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What would Henry Luce, promoter of the\n\u201cAmerican Century,\u201d of international engagement and the spreading of \u201cAmerican\nvalues,\u201d say today? Would he find us now, as he did in 1941, unhappy, nervous,\ngloomy, apathetic? Certainly, there is still a kind of apathy: the 2018 midterm\nelection set a record of 53 percent participation; it was the highest turnout\nin the last four decades of tracking.[26]<\/sup><\/a> And yet, with that high turnout, 47\npercent sat on their hands and took no action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the United States is to have a place\namong nations, and it must, action needs to be taken to make certain that our\npluralistic society becomes ever more inclusive and equitable. The general\nelection of 2020 will tell us once and for all a potent truth about our\ncountry. We are either the \u201cland of the free and the home of the brave,\u201d or we\nare a country disintegrating into the greatest crisis since our founding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will the dream come true that lives in Lin-Manuel Miranda\u2019s Hamilton<\/em>? It\u2019s a dream in which every person has a chance to make his, her, or their way\u2014and it seems a little out of step with events that have happened since Hamilton <\/em>became a major hit. Or is it all, as Eugene O\u2019Neill might have said, merely a pipe dream? What will be the next American Century? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTE<\/strong>: An earlier version of this paper was presented at IATC’s 2018 World Congress conference Performing Arts Today: Freedom and (In)tolerance<\/em>, which took place in St. Petersburg, Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
Endnotes<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/sup><\/a>Henry R. Luce, \u201cThe\nAmerican Century,\u201d Diplomatic History<\/em>,\nvol. 23, no. 2, Spring 1999, p.159.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/sup><\/a>Qtd. in\n\u201cText of the President\u2019s Address,\u201d New\nYork Times<\/em>, 3 Apr. 1917, p. 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/sup><\/a>While\nbeyond the purview of this talk, it is worth noting that Henry Wallace, then\nVice President of the United States, issued a manifesto for the \u201cCentury of the\nCommon Man\u201d at an event on 8 May 1942. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/sup><\/a>Tony\nKushner, \u201cSome Questions About Tolerance,\u201d Thinking\nAbout the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness<\/em>, Theatre\nCommunications Group, 1995, pp. 42\u201343.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5]<\/sup><\/a>\u201cBen Brantley\u2019s Response<\/a>,\u201d New York Times Communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6]<\/sup><\/a>Jodi\nKantor and Megan Twohey, \u201cSexual Misconduct Claims Trail a Hollywood Mogul,\u201d New York Times<\/em>, 5 Oct. 2017, p. A1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7]<\/sup><\/a>Emily Shugerman, \u201cMe Too: Why Are Women Sharing Stories of Sexual Assault and How Did It Start?<\/a>, \u201d The Independent<\/em>, 17 Oct. 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[8]<\/sup><\/a>Daniel Victor, \u201c\u2018Access Hollywood\u2019 Reminds Trump: \u2018The Tape Is Very Real,\u2019<\/a>\u201d The New York Times<\/em>, 28 Nov. 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[9]<\/sup><\/a>Marc Fisher, \u201cTrump and Race: Decades of Fueling Divisions<\/a>,\u201d The Washington Post<\/em>, 16 Aug. 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[10]<\/sup><\/a>Glenn Thrush, \u201cNew Outcry as\nTrump Rebukes Charlottesville Racists 2 Days Later,\u201d The New York Times<\/em>,\n15 Aug. 2017, p. A1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[11]<\/sup><\/a>\u201cIncidents by Year, 2010-19,\u201d K-12 School Shooting Database, Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the Naval Postgraduate School, accessed 2 February 2020, https:\/\/www.chds.us\/ssdb\/category\/shooting-incidents-2010-present\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[12]<\/sup><\/a>Angie Drobnic Holan and Amy Sherman, \u201cPolitiFact\u2019s Lie of the Year: Online Smear Machine Tries to Take Down Parkland Students<\/a>,\u201d Politifact.com<\/em>, 11 December 2018; Craig Timberg and Drew Harwell, \u201cWe Studied Thousands of Anonymous Posts about the Parkland Attack\u2014and Found a Conspiracy in the Making<\/a>,\u201d The Washington Post<\/em>, 27 Feb. 2018; William M. Grynbaum, \u201cDubious Theories on Shooting In Florida Find an Audience<\/a>,\u201d The New York Times<\/em>, 21 Feb. 2018, p. B4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[13]<\/sup><\/a>Emily Witt, \u201cHow the Survivors of Parkland Began the Never Again Movement<\/a>,\u201d The New Yorker,<\/em> 19 Feb. 2018; Dakin Andone, \u201cThey Led a National March. Now Parkland Students Return to a School They Say \u2018Feels Like Jail,\u2019<\/a>\u201d CNN.com<\/em>. An engineering professor in Pennsylvania, who was granted anonymity by the author of this paper, tells the story of holding a laboratory class on the day following the shooting. At the time, faculty members everywhere were reaching out to students and discussing how traumatic events may elicit a need to support to feel safe and secure. Amid this atmosphere, the professor\u2019s lab assistant, a white man of middle age, walked into the class wearing a shirt emblazoned with the National Rifle Association\u2019s logo, which created a tension unlike the teacher had ever experienced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[14]<\/sup><\/a>Michael Paulson, \u201cStereotypes? But They\u2019re Classics.<\/a>\u201d New York Times<\/em>, 24 Feb. 2018, p. AR18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[15]<\/sup><\/a>Laurie Winer, \u201cRodgers and Hammerstein\u2019s Carousel,<\/em> After #MeToo<\/a>,\u201d Vulture.com<\/em>, 11 Apr. 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[16]<\/sup><\/a>Michael Cooper and Robin Pogrebin, \u201cNew York City Ballet Fires 2 Dancers Involved in Sharing Explicit Photos,\u201d New York Times<\/em>, 16 Sept. 2018, p. A25. For background on the stormy history of the Peter Martins\u2019 reign at New York City Ballet, see also, Joan Acocella, \u201cWhat Went Wrong at New York City Ballet<\/a>,\u201d The New Yorker<\/em>, 11 Feb. 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[17]<\/sup><\/a>Ibid.;\nMichael Cooper, \u201cA #MeToo Overstep,\u201d New\nYork Times<\/em>, 20 Apr. 2019, p. C1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[18]<\/sup><\/a>Michael\nPaulson, \u201cStereotypes? But They\u2019re Classics.\u201d New York Times<\/em>, 24 Feb. 2018, p. AR18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[19]<\/sup><\/a>Qtd. in\nPaulson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[20]<\/sup><\/a>Chris Jones, \u201cNo Changes of Heart at All in This Chilly \u2018My Fair Lady\u2019 at Lincoln Center on Broadway<\/a>,\u201d Chicago Tribune<\/em>, 19 Apr. 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[21]<\/sup><\/a>Diep Tran, \u201cKiss Me, My Fair Carousel Woman: Now Is the Season of Our Discontent<\/a>,\u201d American Theatre<\/em>, 6 Apr. 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[22]<\/sup><\/a>Broadway Grosses, Pretty Woman: The Musical<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[23]<\/sup><\/a>Peter Marks, \u201cOn Broadway, I Just Saw My First \u2018Kiss Me, Kate.\u2019 It Was Worth the Wait<\/a>,\u201d Washington Post<\/em>, 14 Mar. 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[24]<\/sup><\/a>John Carucci, \u201cThree of Hoffman\u2019s Accusers Explain Why They Decided to Talk Now<\/a>,\u201d AP News<\/em>, 20 Dec. 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[25]<\/sup><\/a>Jesse Green, \u201cFilling Big Heels with Big Laughs,\u201d New York Times<\/em>, 24 Apr. 2019, p. C1. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[26]<\/sup><\/a>Jordan Misra, \u201cVoter Turnout Rates Among All Voting Age and Major Racial and Ethnic Groups Were Higher Than in 2014<\/a>,\u201d United States Census Bureau, April 23, 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n\"\"

\n\n\n\n

*<\/a>Jeffrey Eric Jenkins <\/strong>is Professor of Theatre at the University of Illinois at Urbana\u2013Champaign. He served as Head of the Department of Theatre from 2012 to 2017 and set the department on a course that resulted in greatly enhanced engagement with online education, financial stability, and improved national rankings. With his creative partner, director Daniel Sullivan, Jenkins has provided new plays with fully realized productions, including works by David Auburn and Donald Margulies. Executive editor of Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em>, he has written hundreds of articles for major newspapers, reference books and scholarly journals. Jenkins has published nine books and served three terms as vice president of AICT-IATC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9<\/strong> 2019 Jeffrey Eric Jenkins
Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em> e-ISSN: 2409-7411<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Creative<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":905,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conference-papers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2020\/01\/Picture10.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":127,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/german-theatre-interventions-and-transformations\/","url_meta":{"origin":890,"position":0},"title":"German Theatre: Interventions and Transformations","author":"Jeffrey Eric Jenkins","date":"December 29, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Azadeh Sharifi* The Epicentre and Its Eruption Abstract The past years have brought eruptive changes and transformation to the German theatre scene. 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His family\u2019s immigrant background and his experience of living throughout the United States and Latin America inspired early on a deep\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Interviews"","block_context":{"text":"Interviews","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/category\/interviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2019\/10\/Photo-8.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":728,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/theatre-in-malta-amateur-practice-and-professional-aspirations\/","url_meta":{"origin":890,"position":4},"title":"Theatre in Malta: Amateur Practice and Professional Aspirations","author":"Jeffrey Eric Jenkins","date":"December 16, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Vicki Ann Cremona* Abstract This article provides a general outline of theatre in Malta where the small size of the archipelago (316m2) makes it difficult to develop professional theatre. It evaluates the issues theatre faces when confronted by political constraints that affect cultural policies and outlooks. It looks at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "National Reports"","block_context":{"text":"National Reports","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/category\/national-reports\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2019\/12\/image7-3.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2019\/12\/image7-3.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2019\/12\/image7-3.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2019\/12\/image7-3.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":627,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/with-age-i-get-more-tolerant-of-failure-interview-with-michael-billington\/","url_meta":{"origin":890,"position":5},"title":"\u201cWith age, I get more tolerant of failure\u201d: Interview with Michael Billington","author":"Jeffrey Eric Jenkins","date":"December 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mark Fisher* He had a front-row seat for the political theatre of the 1970s, the musicals of the 1980s, the in-yer-face generation of the 1990s and the cross-cultural developments of the twenty-first century. Now, at the age of 80, and after 48 years as lead drama critic on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Critics on Criticism"","block_context":{"text":"Critics on Criticism","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/category\/critics-on-criticism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2019\/12\/image12.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1258,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890\/revisions\/1258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}