Broadway Bodies: A Critical History of Conformity

The book "Broadway Bodies" explores how ability, sexuality, and size intersect with gender, race, and ethnicity in casting and performance on Broadway. It questions why certain bodies are favored while others are cast aside and reveals the history of Broadway's inclusion of various forms of embodied difference while simultaneously ambivalence toward non-conforming bodies.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 328 pages
Publication date: 13 April 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

Broadway has a history of perpetuating the concept of the "Broadway Body," which refers to the idealized, hyper-fit, and exceptionally skilled performer who embodies the physical preferences of Broadway musicals. Casting in Broadway is a political act that operates within a power structure that favors the Broadway Body. In his book "Broadway Bodies," author Ryan Donovan delves into the complex intersections of ability, sexuality, size, gender, race, and ethnicity in casting and performance on Broadway. Donovan raises several thought-provoking questions throughout the book, such as why did the show "A Chorus Line," which aimed to showcase individual dancers, ultimately result in indistinguishable performances? How does the use of fat suits in musicals like "Dreamgirls" and "Hairspray" perpetuate stigmatization of 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 redefine the sound of musicals in Deaf West's Broadway revivals? Additionally, Donovan explores the question of whose bodies are cast on Broadway and whose bodies are cast aside. Through his comprehensive analysis, "Broadway Bodies" provides a historical account of Broadway's inclusion of various forms of embodied difference while simultaneously revealing its ambivalence toward non-conforming bodies.

Weight: 454g
Dimension: 155 x 236 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780197551080