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Celebrity and the Broadway Musical: Perceptions, Practices, and Prospects for an American Art Form

Grothues, Nicole M.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1306240634

Abstract Details

2011, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Arts Policy and Administration.
Since the birth of Broadway in the late 19th and early 20th century, musical theatre has become a special part of America’s indigenous cultural heritage and cultural exportation. Broadway has long created its own headliners who made their living performing on stage in front of live audiences night after night and who were lauded for their theatrical prowess. However, beginning in the early 1980s, celebrities most famous for their work in other entertainment media (such as the television, film, and music industries) began to appear on Broadway—both on stage and off—in an effort to capitalize on the celebrities’ popular appeal and boost ticket sales. This capitalization on popular celebrity in Broadway musicals has steadily increased since the 1980s, and other uses of celebrity culture, such as adapting popular music and popular films, have also become ubiquitous in the Broadway musical. Through the voices of professionals in the musical theatre industry, this thesis explores how the current trend of Broadway musicals’ use of celebrity is affecting the art form of the American musical as an indigenous art form. The methodological approach used is discourse analysis, and 21 professionals in the field were interviewed in an effort to understand the qualitative repercussions of this financially motivated trend. The findings show that participants see the field as being affected both positively and negatively by celebrity on Broadway, and conclusions are made about which effects are most foretelling of what the future could hold for the American musical.
Wayne Lawson, PhD (Advisor)
James Bohr, MFA (Committee Member)
151 p.
Arts Management; Theater
Broadway; Musical Theatre; Celebrity

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Grothues, N. M. (2011). Celebrity and the Broadway Musical: Perceptions, Practices, and Prospects for an American Art Form [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1306240634

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Grothues, Nicole. Celebrity and the Broadway Musical: Perceptions, Practices, and Prospects for an American Art Form. 2011. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1306240634.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Grothues, Nicole. "Celebrity and the Broadway Musical: Perceptions, Practices, and Prospects for an American Art Form." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1306240634

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1306240634
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© 2011, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.