Proposal: Locating the New York Musical

The popularity of musicals has waxed and waned over the years, but the musical has remained a cornerstone of Broadway, and every so often still manages to make it onto the movie theater screen. These productions are often reflections on the communities and cities they are set in, despite the fun-loving attitude that tends to be associated with American musicals.

Topic Description
For my mapping project, I would like to map out about 10 musicals that are set in New York City.  Ideally, the selected productions will do one of two things: They will focus on the same portion of Manhattan over the course of several years, allowing for an analysis of changing perceptions of the given location. Alternatively, by looking at where productions focused in the hey-day of musicals (the 1950s and 60s) versus where they tend to be located today may reveal something about a larger cultural shift and attitudes toward this particular medium.  The direction the project takes will depend on what insights are actually obtained, but the second option seems to provide richer analytic opportunities as it focuses on the communities but also on the medium at large.
Relevance
With the second path in mind, this project would speak to changes in the nature of the musical, and would seek to extrapolate from there cultural shifts as reflected in the choice of geographic location (i.e. setting Rent in Alphabet City and In the Heights in Washington Heights). While the project would be oriented toward a more general survey of the state of the musical, it would also end up addressing notions of gentrification, class divides, and general topics regarding shifting demographics in New York City that inform the everyday politics of this city.
Spatial Argument
The productions this project is aimed at have significant relationships with their geographic locations. Older shows like West Side Story are driven by location, but almost 50 years later In the Heights deals with a similar demographic that has since moved and must deal with some of the same circumstances of their West Side predecessors, but also new ones that have come with digital age.  While this level of reciprocity will not be as easily found among other shows, other productions will speak to larger changes in attitudes about New York as topics shifted from internal dialogues about the show business in A Chorus Line to more socially significant topics in Rent, but both remain spatially driven. Chorus Line makes a direct argument with Broadway, and Rent uses the East Village historical role for the LGBTQ community and its struggle with AIDS.
Bibliography
2002. Web. 2 Oct 2012. <http://www.theatrehistory.com/index.html>.
 
Bordman, Gerald. American Musical Theater: A Chronicle. Oxford University Press, 2001. Print.
 
Bush Jones, John. Our Musicals, Ourselves: A Social History of the American Musical Theatre. Hanover and London: Brandeis University Press, 2003. Print.
 
Engel, Lehman. The American Musical Theater . Macmillan, 1967. Print.
 
Kantor, Michael, dir. “Broadway: The American Musical .” PBS: October 2004. Television.
 
Mast, Gerald. Can’t help Singin’: The American musical on stage and screen Mast, Gerald . Overlook Press, 1987. Print.
Menerth Jr., Edward F. “American Musical Theater.” Music Educators Journal. 53.6 (1967): 83-87, 89-91. Print.
Schwarz, Daniel R. Broadway Boogie Woogie: Damon Runyon and the Making of New York City Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Print
 
Winer, Linda. “Are days of big Broadway spectacles ending?” Newsday [New York City] 21 Sep 2012. <http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/columnists/linda-winer/are-days-of-big-broadway-spectacles-ending-1.4014926>.
Zoglin, Richard, and Lisa McLaughlin. “Life After Rent.” Time, 171.10 (2008): 65-67.
Recordings of the relevant productions (42^nd Street, Rent, Newsies, In the Heights, West Side Story, A Chorus Line, The Producers, Hair, Annie other shows TBD)
 
Formats of Media and Artifacts
– Text analyses: Commentary on individual productions.
– Connections: Linking productions that represent transitions and changes in socio-geographic terms specific to New York and/or general cultural shifts.
-When clips from productions are available, ideally those will serve as media for the map. Several of the productions have been turned into films, so access to clips from the film versions might be possible.
– Stills from shows
– Stills of actual locations referenced in the productions (i.e. specific stores or streets).
– Song clips speaking to location or addressing a specific idea of the map’s overall argument (if available).