‘Tommy,’ Can You Hear Me? I’m Not Gonna Take It
From its casting to its staging, the acclaimed new Broadway revival of the iconic rock musical misses opportunities to engage with, and subvert, harmful tropes around Deafness and disability.
All Stories About problematic musicals
The New ‘Real Women’ Musical Has Curves, But How About Complexity?
This enduring mother-daughter story about undocumented Latina immigrants has been turned into a celebratory crowd pleaser, for better and worse.
The Complicated Triumph of ‘Here Lies Love’
David Byrne’s Broadway musical is a breakthrough for Filipino American performers, but at what cost to the historical truths it dances around?
Can ‘The King and I’ Be Decolonized?
It’s long past time to rethink the beloved musical’s whitewash of Anna Leonowens, a mixed-race woman whose books lied about more than just her background.
Don’t Blame It on Their Youth
The problem with young adult shows on Broadway isn’t that they focus on teens—it’s which teens they focus on.
The Gender Problem ‘Tootsie’ Can’t Dress Up
The new musical’s creators think they’ve upended the material’s sexist tropes; apparently they don’t see that ‘man in a dress’ jokes are inherently transphobic.
The Taming of ‘Kiss Me, Kate’
The musical by Cole Porter, Bella Spewack, and Samuel Spewack started out more female-focused. What happened?
Kiss Me, My Fair Carousel Woman: Now Is the Season of Our Discontent
Is this really the right time for a spate of male-authored, male-directed musicals about subservient women to come to Broadway?
I Am Miss Saigon, and I Hate It
It’s not just that the hit musical doesn’t tell my family’s story. It’s that it perpetuates a narrative in which the Vietnamese are victims, not fighters.
Building a Better ‘Mikado,’ Minus the Yellowface
With the help of Asian-American advisors, Lamplighters Music Theatre is radically recovering the Gilbert & Sullivan classic.
