| Contents |
Entertainment and utopia / Richard Dyer -- The self-reflective musical and the myth of entertainment / Jane Feuer -- The American film musical as dual-focus narrative / Rick Altman -- Busby Berkeley and the backstage musical / Martin Rubin -- Sexual economics, Gold diggers of 1933 / Patricia Mellencamp -- Pre-text and text in Gentlemen prefer blondes / Lucie Arbuthnot, Gail Seneca -- "Feminizing" the song-and-dance man, Fred Astaire and the spectacle of masculinity in the Hollywood musical / Steven Cohan -- Judy Garland and camp / Richard Dyer -- "Working like a homosexual", camp visual codes and the labor of gay subjects in the MGM Freed Unit / Matthew Tinkcom -- Feminist camp in Gold diggers of 1933 / Pamela Robertson -- "The lady in the tutti-frutti hat", Carmen Miranda, a spectacle of ethnicity / Shari Roberts -- Dancin' in the rain / Carol J. Clover -- New Deal blackface / Michael Rogin -- Beautiful white bodies / Linda Mizejewski. |
| Abstract |
This book explores one of the most popular genres in film history. The mainstay of film production throughout the studio era, the musical endures today though animated features, teen dance films, and features such as Evita and Moulin Rouge. Combining classic and recent articles, each section explores a central issue of the musical, including genre and stardom, gender and spectacle, race and sexuality, and features an editor's introduction setting debates in context. From Gold Diggers of 1933 to Singin' in the Rain, this book demonstrates that musicals were always more than simple entertainment, and examines why certain topics, films, and stars have become central to studies of the genre. Sections include: generic forms (examines how musicals achieved their cultural currency through their form), gendered spectacles (considers the representation of sexual difference in spectacle), camp interventions (reads against the grain of the genre's outward appearance of "wholesome", "straight" entertainment), racial displacements (traces the significance of race and ethnicity in the musical's use of entertainment traditions). |
