Mattbrain is right.
But you also have to look at how things were before 9/11 to know how they changed. Performance theory focuses on how bodies are presented on stage or film. There were a lot of dance based shows in the 1990s where dance was also a dramatic and political device--Show Boat (race/class/gender), Carousel (class/gender), Noise/Funk (race/class/gender), Swan Lake (class/gender), Contact (gender/identity), even Lion King, though not overtly political (or even covertly) followed suit in the complicated style of dance that it used in it's story telling. It was all about the performer's body in the space--and the different things you could do to or with the body told the story. In performance theory--the body is political--and the race/class/gender issues create the drama of the story. The drama happens at the intersection where gay/straight, man/woman, black/white collide. That is identity politics. It doesn't really lend itself to comedy, unless it is ironic or campy.
That disappeared from the Broadway musical after 9/11. Thoroughly Modern Millie's tap ensemble beat out Susan Stroman's psycho/sexual nightmare choreography for Oklahoma! at the Tony Awards. It wasn't about the body anymore--it was about the mass chorus and precision in a jewel-toned world with bright lights. That is nationalistic. Stars and stripes forever and all that. Movin' Out tried to have it both ways. But that was virtuosity, and the story was 100% American in theme. So it still fit in the Nationalistic mindset of the general public. There weren't gay people or minority struggles (except in the awkward S&M scene--so they got blocked out our minds right away). Then Wonderful Town. Fun fun fun. La Cage revival--not a commercial success by any stretch of the imagination. won the tony for choreography. But it was camp. Chorus numbers--just like Millie. Only with men as women. If men had done it as men--it would have closed even faster. Hairspray approaches race (to a point), but, like La Cage--it is camp. Man as Woman. Instead of using the body, it knowingly disguises the body. Avenue Q works the same way--by using puppets, it removes race/class/gender from the real world to speak about them in hypotheticals--out of the realm of the real world. It's easier to digest. Wicked I think they just forgot to choreograph. Actually--Wicked is the post 9/11 musical that got to have it both ways and succeed. It has identity politics in it, but they are green people. So it's one step removed--like the camp musicals. It also has anti-nationalistic themes, but with the production values of a show that would seem to be all about grandeur and mass spectical.
Caroline, or Change is about identity politcs and used bodies even as appliances--the bodies of the working class, but not many people wanted to see it. It's important to note how many people want to see it now around the country and in London vs. 3 years ago.
And the Pajama Game. Bodies in pajamas having fun fun fun.
Finally, in 2006 we got Spring Awakening (which was supposed to premier in 2001 at Long Wharf). Michael Mayer and Bill T. Jones brought identity politcs back to Broadway through their staging. Bodies are everything to that show. Christine Ebersole's body is the poster and advertising art for Grey Gardens all over the city. The body is the center of that show, too.
I think we are finally ready for the era of nationalism an the quaintness of old comedies affecting our current culture to pass.
Light in the Piazza was a step in the process also, but I never got to see it, so I don't want to go too in depth on it.
That's my take, for what it's worth.
Use reviews of shows as sources and come up with your own opinions, since nothing is written on this, b/c it's so current. Professors like students to have their own ideas, rather han regurgitating some scholar's, anyway. If you need sources--a lot has been written on performance theory. Search for books about Performance Studies. You can just apply your favorites to the shows of the last ten years.
Updated On: 4/18/07 at 02:58 PM
