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Jeanelle Wheeler
Prof. Sheryl Kaskowitz
MUSC 0040
12/11/15
According to Broadway: Social Commentary in Adapted Musical Theater
All musical theater productions are social documents. As social documents, musicals can
expose, perpetuate, and protest society’s prejudices, such as sexism and racism. Therefore, they
not only reflect society, but can also be a means to transform it. Since most musicals are already
adapted from previous works, the alterations to the originals provide direct insight and
commentary on society’s biases. Thus, by examining the revival of Annie Get Your Gun, West
Side Story as a modern Romeo and Juliet, and both The Wiz and Wicked as different adaptations
of the Wizard of Oz, I will show how strategic changes to the original version of a musical reveal
the author’s hope for societal change in a different time period than the original.
At first, it may appear easy to dismiss the claim that musical theater is an agent of social
change. After all, Broadway is a money-making industry that historically has catered to white
and upper and middle class audiences. To many, Broadway can be considered elitist. With everincreasing ticket prices, shows are only accessible to those who have the means to afford them.
(For instance, current prices to see Wicked on Broadway range from $120 to nearly $300 for
“premium” seats.) And yet, musical theater affects even those who don’t physically see the
performances, since a show’s themes can spark a debate or raise awareness in the community at
large.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), an adaptation is “an altered or amended
version of a text, musical composition, etc.; one adapted for filming, broadcasting, or production
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on the stage from a novel or similar source.” Since stories represent life, they are never static,
stagnant pieces, but rather shapeshift and grow depending on the context of the time period.
Why art “adapts” is explained in OED’s second definition of adaptation – “the action or process
of adapting one thing to fit with another, or suit specified conditions, especially a new or
changed environment.” Since the world continues to change, presumably there could be an
infinite number of adaptations to fit the current social context. As New York Times writer Peter
Marks writes, “Nothing on stage is as perishable as topicality, and what one generation views as
cutting edge becomes the next generation’s tired convention. That is why many of these retooled
productions will probably end up being revised, too” (Marks 5). It is precisely this process of
ongoing reinvention and recreation that allows a musical to highlight issues of race or gender in
an otherwise familiar story that is white and male-dominated.
Annie Get Your Gun, first performed in 1946, is an example of what Newsday magazine
coined a “revisical” – a musical that is revived and revised with a “political correctness” agenda.
According to Rodgers and Hammerstein News, in the 1999 revised version of Annie Get Your
Gun, author Peter Stone was challenged to “acknowledge a contemporary sensibility while
remaining true to the spirt of a classic” (“Bulls-Eye!”). The cartoonish portrayal and nonsensical
utterances of Native Americans are offensive. Also offensive are the sexist ideals perpetuated by
a main character, Frank Butler, who uses the song The Girl That I Marry to declare “the girl that
I marry will have to be/soft and pink as a nursery.” It is also true, however, that the protagonist
Annie Oakley’s strong personality is a model for a feminist lead not often seen during this time
period. She may lament that she “can’t get a man with a gun,” but ultimately she stays true to
herself. That is, of course, until the ending when she, in a display of submission, decides to
purposely lose the shooting contest in order not to lose a man. The 1999 version did alter the
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ending, having Frank also try to lose the contest, since he would rather win fairly than through
Annie’s not trying. Regardless of this change, Annie’s climactic decision to be submissive to
“get the guy” extinguishes the hopeful flame of a feminist message that permeates the rest of the
show.
It is this difficult balance between classic fun and modern sensitivity that makes Chicago
Tribune reporter Chris Jones describe a 2013 production of Annie Get Your Gun as “one tricky
target to nail” (Jones 1). While he lauds Irving Berlin’s music and the show’s continued
popularity with its memorable score, he remarks that lines, particularly of the Indians, got a
laugh in 1946 and even 1976, but in 2013 “nobody knew quite what to do, beyond looking
around to see who else might be laughing” (1). Jones comments further about the nature of
revisionism when he writes, “You could argue that the show is what it is, that it reflected the
attitudes of its era, and that if you are going to do it, then you have got to do it as originally
written. People understand that America has changed. Perhaps” (2).
Jones’ argument for not altering an original work resonates with New York Times reviewer
Peter Marks, who believes there is a tendency for musical theater to perform “wholesale
renovation” on musicals while “treating the original as a shabby apartment with unnecessary
clutter and a lot of potential” (Marks 1). He ascribes the practice of revisions to modern
audiences’ desire to watch a show that is relevant and relatable. In Marks’ words, “When
today’s audiences pay to gaze at the past, they want a lot more than golden memories; they want
to feel as if a tried-and-true form speaks to the contemporary world” (2). He doubts, however,
that musicals can be “elastic” enough to adapt to modern tastes since he considers all musical
theater to be “essentially period pieces tied more closely to the pop music and cultural and
commercial trends of a given moment.” In this way, Marks questions the value of ever adapting
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an original, because, he asks, “How much can you alter Annie Get Your Gun before it is no
longer Annie Get Your Gun? Does a politically corrected Indian character make it a better
musical, or simply more palatable to a wider audience? Is the process of reconfiguration a
refinement or a whitewash?” (2).
In his 1999 New York Times article, Marks clearly values the purity of an original work as a
time capsule to the past, while Jones argues that a modern rendition of Annie Get Your Gun is
imperative to “save the piece from itself, at least in some of its more egregious moments” (Jones
2). He considers the 1999 revised version “a lot more palatable,” which enables the audience to
still enjoy the production as a “historic musical” (3). Jones also comments that Annie Get Your
Gun can and perhaps should be produced with greater awareness of its themes – women’s
change in status and the fear of this change and how it would affect America’s power structure
(3).
Whether you agree or disagree that revising a musical is ever a wise decision, each alteration
is intentional and speaks to what society deems acceptable. Because words that are sung in the
midst of a dramatic story have the power to move people at an emotional level, alterations to an
original production can be a subtle form of protesting the biases that existed in a previous era.
Not all adaptations are necessarily revivals. Some musical theater is based on a famous story
that has become deeply embedded in the culture. By analyzing the modifications of an
adaptation, the show’s social relevance is often revealed.
The idea for a classic like West Side Story, for example, came from Jerome Robbins and
Arthur Laurents’ desire to do a modern-day adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Instead of using the
concept of warring families as obstacles to young lovers, Robbins and Laurents used the 1949
New York gang violence to create a relevant love story between members of opposing gangs.
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Soon the Puerto Rican Sharks and the white Jets were born, along with the new “star-crossed
lovers” – Puerto Rican Maria and Caucasian Tony. Thanks to the show’s lyrics and dramatic
action, there is no overt “preaching” on the themes of ethnic and racial prejudices. The show’s
story helps the audience analyze and critique both prejudice and the American Dream through its
dramatic plot and songs. Maria, a member of the Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks, sings of an
ideal place Somewhere where the couple can be together without the violence, hatred, and
prejudice they live with, while at the same time, the Sharks parody the idea of the American
dream through the song America’s resounding refrain: “I like to be in America/Okay by me in
America/Ev’rything free in America/For a small fee in America!” Musically, the tritone quality
of many of the show’s songs indicates instability, restlessness, and tension. This same tension
exists in Shakespeare’s original Romeo and Juliet. And yet, a major difference between the two
works is how they end. While both tragic, West Side Story’s writers do not kill both lovers in the
end. Maria survives. Her survival could be interpreted as hope for the world as a bridge to
reconciliation for the opposing groups. In a moment of truce, Maria’s grief for Tony motivates
both gangs to carry off Tony’s body together.
In 2009, a revival of West Side Story came to Broadway. In this adaptation of an adaptation,
original writer Arthur Laurents chose not to tamper with most of the script, but instead he
rewrote the Sharks’ songs and some of the dialogue in Spanish. As he told National Public
Radio, “I don’t think there’s any point in doing a revival unless you have a really fresh
approach” (Stamberg). Not only did the Spanish songs and dialogue make the show more
authentic, but their presence also increased the friction between the two groups by adding a
language barrier. Cody Green, who played the Jets leader Riff in the 1999 revival, relates, “If
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you don’t understand what’s being said, it gets a rise out of you. It creates this tension . . .”
(Stamberg).
Unlike earlier versions, the revival had Latino actors play the roles of Puerto Ricans. In this
way, the updated version of West Side Story reflects the modern-day demand to be more
authentic by casting people of color who spoke and sang in Spanish. Opening on March 19, the
2009 version originally sung A Boy Like That (Un Hombre Asi) and I Feel Pretty (Siento
Hermosa) in Spanish. But on August 20, 2009, Broadway’s Playbill website announced that the
revised lyrics were revised again and that most of the songs would revert to English. Laurents
explained that, “From the outset, the Spanish in West Side Story was an experiment. It’s been an
ongoing process of finding what worked and what didn’t, and it still continues” (Gans).
Comments on the ArtsBeat blog of the New York Times had mixed reactions. While some
comments applauded the idea of Spanish lyrics because of the added authenticity, others
remarked that the audience contained too many non-Spanish speakers who didn’t understand the
lyrics (Itzkoff). While Spanish lyrics make the story more authentic, if the musical doesn’t draw
enough Spanish-speakers then the lyrics are incomprehensible and some of the meaning is lost.
One commenter called the update “awkward and pretentious” (Itzkoff). It is possible, however,
that this attempt at improvement and authenticity ultimately failed because Laurents was ahead
of his time in bringing Spanish to the mainly white non-Spanish-speaking audiences of
Broadway. Perhaps a generation from now, a more bilingual audience will embrace the change.
Ultimately, West Side Story, even though written and produced by whites, is about relations
between ethnic groups. In contrast, the 1974 musical The Wiz, successfully protested society’s
race relations by using an all-black cast while reimagining the all-white The Wizard of Oz in the
predominantly-white institution of Broadway. The conscious decision to use an all-black cast in
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The Wiz and use Motown-style music calls attention to the “whiteness” of the music and cast in
The Wizard of Oz. When NBC recently announced it would air its own version of The Wiz on
Thursday, December 3rd, social media, particularly Twitter, was abuzz with confused reactions
from its white audience. Many tweeted reactions like, “I just learned there is a black version of
The Wizard of Oz called The Wiz – how is this not racist?” (Evan). One tweet insinuated that the
current Black Lives Matter Movement would have been upset if a cast was all-white, while
whites are not protesting the all-black cast of The Wiz (Kelso). What this Twitter user does not
realize, is that The Wiz Live did not “change [its] cast to all black actors” as he implies, but
rather, The Wiz is all about the black condition. One tweet reads “Remaking something with an
all-black cast seems . . . a tiny bit racist” (Jessica). The fact that the cast of The Wiz garnered
such a reaction shows that race remains a contentious issue today, particularly in the wake of
current events such as police shootings that sparked the Black Lives Matter Movement and
campus demands for racial equality. Consequently, the political reactions to The Wiz
demonstrate how a show’s meaning can change to become part of the debate surrounding the
important social issues of the day.
The original The Wiz was born in the Civil Rights movement. As a completely black
mainstream musical in the 1970s, the mostly white audience was at first critical and apathetic.
The Wiz finally became successful by bypassing a traditional press campaign and effectively
using television commercials to encourage black families to “ease on down the road” called
Broadway to see the show. Once the black community supported The Wiz, it was a success and
created a new black audience for Broadway (Manslon). In this way, reimagining a traditionally
“white” story enabled actual social change by making Broadway more inclusive to the black
community.
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In The Wiz, the basic plot of The Wizard of Oz is left unchanged. Dorothy gets caught up in a
tornado and joins forces with the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion to find the Wizard of Oz to help
bring Dorothy home. However, the songs’ lyrics and style are altered. The show, Wicked, on the
other hand, is not just a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, but rather provides an explanation of what
The Wizard of Oz leaves unexplained. In other words, through Wicked, the audience gains a
radically new perspective on a classic tale. We see the Land of Oz not through Dorothy’s eyes,
but rather through the lenses of the characters Glinda and the Wicked Witch herself – Elphaba.
The Broadway musical Wicked is actually a retelling of the original, darker novel, Wicked by
Gregory MacGuire. In a 2004 interview, he said that, “I feel like I stand in an avuncular,
grandfatherly relation to the Broadway play. It does do some things to the story that I wouldn’t
have done myself, and that I didn’t do myself . . . but that’s not to say that I disapprove of them.
I recognize that it’s another generation . . . . It’s not a clone; it’s something else” (“Wicked”).
And, of course, this “something else,” these alterations, are at the heart of any adaptation. This
“something else” also may have saved Maguire’s work from fading into literary obscurity. A
New York Times review of his book complained that “his insistence on politicizing Oz and
injecting it with a heavy dose of moral relativism turns a wonderfully spontaneous world of
fantasy into a lugubrious allegorical realm . . .” (Kakutani).
Despite the altered tone, the politicized view of Oz extends into the Broadway musical. The
show’s primary purpose is to invite audiences to wrestle with the nature of evil, moral
ambiguities, and how society creates history. In the middle of the Wizard’s song, Wonderful, for
instance, Elphaba accuses him of lying to the citizens of Oz while the Wizard responds by
singing of history’s subjectivity:
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Elphaba, where I come from, we believe all sorts of things that aren’t true. We call it
history. A man’s called a traitor/or liberator./ A rich man’s a thief or philanthropist./Is
one a crusader/or ruthless invader/It’s all in which label is able to persist./There are
precious few at ease/with moral ambiguities./So we act as though they don’t exist.
However, Princeton University theater professor, author, and director, Stacy Wolf, insists that
many critics overlook the political nature of the piece while focusing on Wicked as a commercial
spectacle. She writes, “The progressive power of the piece is less in the overtly stated politics of
the show about government and leadership, and more in the representation and performative
power of a pair of women on stage together” (Wolf 217).
It is true that at the center of Wicked, leading the story and leading the Land of Oz, are two
strong female women – Elphaba and Glinda. So perhaps MacGuire’s tale and The Wizard of Oz
were “changed for good.” Named after one of Wicked’s songs, Changed for Good is also the
title of Stacy Wolf’s 2011 book – a book that examines women and the feminist history of the
highly successful Broadway musical. According to Wolf:
Wicked’s concomitant celebration of women and its astonishing commercial success are
at once surprising and expected – surprising because the mainstream press characterizes
the twenty-first century as postfeminist, and expected because musical theatre has always
been the terrain of women and girls, from its vibrant female characters to its passionate
female fans. (6)
Wolf goes on to explain that the “divas” of Wicked help other female performers construct and
transform themselves (232). They use Wicked not just as spectators, but as a “script for life”
(232). Wolf also characterizes fans of Wicked as beginning as spectators and evolving into
“creators, producers, and artists themselves” in a world where women have historically been
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considered consumers rather than producers of culture (232). In this way, an alternate telling of
The Wizard of Oz has created an alternate reality of women-power that women want to
implement in their own lives.
Singing itself is a “powerful emotional outlet,” according to Wolf, since the singer is “both
revealing and concealing what she sees as her true self” (322). The same could be said about
musical theater. Every Broadway show and every adaptation reveals something about society
while concealing an overt political message just enough to appeal to a wide audience.
Ultimately, music combined with storytelling (the essence of musical theater) gains its power
from its emotional connection with its audience. Producers, writers, directors, musicians, and
actors can only do so much to produce or adapt a musical. Broadway gives us an experience, but
it is up to the audience to interpret it. After all, “The affective power of Wicked – or any musical
that succeeds commercially – is what ultimately touches the audience” (Wolf 217).
In each of the musicals examined, Annie Get Your Gun, West Side Story, The Wiz, and
Wicked, systematic racism and sexism are perpetuated and/or exposed and protested as the show
itself is revised, revived, reimagined, and reinvigorated by the evolution of society. Since what
touches the audience ultimately does depend on the context of the time period, I believe that
adaptations do not destroy the purity of classic works of art; instead, they breathe new life into
classic musicals, thus allowing them to influence new generations of theater-goers and society atlarge.
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Works Cited
"adaptation, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2015. Web. 11 December
2015
"Bulls Eye! Annie Get Your Gun Hits Broadway." Rodgers & Hammerstein. 1 July 1999. Web.
11 Dec. 2015. <http://www.rnh.com/news/578/Bulls-Eye-Annie-Get-Your-Gun-HitsBroadway>.
Evan (@MJTM) “I just learned there is a black version of The Wizard of Oz called ‘The Wiz’ –
how is this not racist?” November 23, 2015.
Gans, Andrew. "A Song Like That: Collaborators Reconsider Spanish Lyrics in West Side
Story." Playbill. 25 Aug. 2009. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.
Itzkoff, Dave. "Bilingual 'West Side Story' Edits Out Some Spanish." Artsbeat: The Culture at
Large. The New York Times, 25 Aug. 2009. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.
Jessica (@90s_Jess) “This is how I feel. Remaking something with an all-black cast seems…a
tiny bit racist. #The Wiz.” November 18, 2015.
Jones, Chris. "'Annie Get Your Gun' Requires Careful Aim." Chicago Tribune 22 Dec. 2013,
Arts & Entertainment sec. Print.
Kakutani, Michiko. "Let's Get This Straight: Glinda Was the Bad One?" The New York Times 24
Oct. 1995, Books of the Times sec. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.
Kelso, Jeff (@boottapper) “Want to point out that #TheWizLive has changed cast to all black
actors yet there’s no outrage from the whites. #BlackLivesMatter Just sayin” December 1,
2015
Manslon, Laurence. "Civil Rights Era on Broadway." Broadway: The American Musical. Public
Broadcasting Service (PBS). Web. 11 Dec. 2015.
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Marks, Peter. "Rewrite a Classic Musical? Whatever Works Goes." The New York Times 24 Jan.
1999, Theater sec. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.
Rankin, Kenyra. "People Think "The Wiz Live!" Is Racist. Twitter Says, "Huh?"" Colorlines.
Race Forward, 3 Dec. 2015. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.
Stamberg, Susan. "A 'West Side Story' With a Different Accent." Performing Arts. 16 Dec. 2008.
Web. 11 Dec. 2015.
"Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West Introduction." Shmoop. Web. 11
Dec. 2015. <http://www.shmoop.com/wicked-book/>.
Wolf, Stacy Ellen. Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical. New York:
Oxford UP, 2010. Print.
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