Her Turn on Stage - by Grace Barnes (Paperback)

About the Book

"Audiences for musical theater are predominantly women, yet the shows onstage are frequently created and produced by men. Onstage, female characters are often victims or sex objects and lack the complexity of their male counterparts. ... Based on interviews with successful female performers, writers, directors, choreographers and executives, the book offers a unique female viewpoint on musical theatre today."--

Book Synopsis

Audiences for musical theater are predominantly women, yet shows are frequently created and produced by men. Onstage, female characters are depicted as victims or sex objects and lack the complexity of their male counterparts. Offstage, women are under-represented among writers, directors, composers and choreographers.

While other areas of the arts rally behind gender equality, musical theater demonstrates a disregard for women and an authentic female voice.

If musical theater reflects prevailing societal attitudes, what does the modern musical tell us about the place of women in contemporary America, the UK and Australia? Are women deliberately kept out of musical theater by men jealously guarding their territory or is the absence of women a result of the modernization of the genre? Based on interviews with successful female performers, writers, directors, choreographers and executives, this book offers a unique female viewpoint on musical theater today.

About the Author

Grace Barnes is a director/playwright who has worked as an associate or resident director on productions of My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof, The Threepenny Opera, Into the Woods, Sunset Boulevard, The Witches of Eastwick, Martin Guerre, West Side Story, and Guys and Dolls in the UK, Germany and Australia. She lives in London, England.