Just a few pages later, the book opens up into some of the larger theoretical questions it will consider: “Beyond Broadway illustrates the widespread presence and persistence of musical theatre in US culture, examining it not as an object or a cultural artifact (as much musical theatre scholarship does), but as a social practice, a doing, a live, visceral experience of creating, watching, listening” (5) In Chapter 2, Wolf writes about the world of the “backstage diva,” here a woman in San Anselmo, California, named Marilyn Izdebski, who stands for a type the author argues you find in every town: “The female musical theatre director who works with kids after school and on the weekends, who teaches them dance or drama, and who directs them in shows can be found in most American towns” (71) The author raises questions about the ways diversity and politics impact these shows, the way they encompass town values, and how they function as ritual, empower their students, and offer their own internal cultures
Beyond Broadway: The Pleasure and Promise of Musical Theatre across America By Stacy Wolf,. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020 ;pp. 1 + 382, 30 illustrations. $99 hardcover, $29.95 paper, $23.99 e-book