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STRONG WOMEN SINGING: THE LIST!

The top ten strongest female characters in musical theatre.
By Shoshana Greenberg (Lyricist/Bookwriter)


Last month, I posted about helping to create a list of the strongest female characters in musicals. Thank you to everyone who contributed characters, both here and on other forums. I loved reading your entries and discovering your reasons for why these characters are wonderful and strong.

I've now weighed all the entries and compiled the top ten list. Instead of explaining my reasons for choosing each character, I wanted to use your words, as those were what influenced the choices and the order. I have some of my own thoughts, which you'll see below, but, really, this list comes from you.

The Top Ten Strongest Female Characters in Musical Theatre

10. Mame from Mame
"She travels, she briefly marries (her husband falls off a cliff)-- but no matter. She forges on and wants her beloved nephew to be happy. For Mame, marriage is nice but not essential. And oh yeah, she coaxed the blues right out of the horn." -Wendy

"[A] wild party woman of the roaring 20s who is forced by circumstance to raise her nephew [becomes] a role model of living life by being true to yourself while weathering snobbery, the loss of true love, and the hardships of the depression." -Diane

Mame show art.

9.  Princess Winnifred  from Once Upon a Mattress
"You first meet Princess Winnifred in the most unladylike of circumstances--climbing over the wall soaking wet after swimming the moat--and singing the song "Shy", which she clearly isn't. She's not afraid to speak her mind and she impresses the Prince by all her diverse abilities ("Song of Love") rather than being coy and letting him impress her. And in the song "Happily Ever After" she sings about having to fend for herself without the aid of magical fairy-tale circumstances." -Tara

"Fred (well, Winifred) defies the convention of a damsel in distress. She's loud, brash, and doesn't need anyone to rescue her." -Diana

The trailer for the 2005 television version of Once Upon a Mattress.

 

8. Cinderella from Into the Woods
"She starts out as the typical Cinderella who wants to go to the ball and marries the prince, but by the second act she is helping to fight the giant and taking care of the remaining characters. She understands the truth about her philandering husband and moves on." -Shoshana

"Cinderella fights to survive and is not weak in the knees like in most fairy tale versions and assumes a caretaker role at the end, protecting everyone." -Aliza

Cinderella at her mother's grave in the original Broadway production of Into the Woods.

 

7. Margaret from The Light in the Piazza
"The mother of a grown daughter, she's not your conventional heroine/narrator. I was struck by the power of her audience-address privilege throughout the show, as she was able to share her inner logic, her justifications, her deepest fears. I found her terrifically fallible, proud, petty, wounded, funny, and in the end strong enough to open her heart to the possibility of her daughter being fulfilled in love, a possibility that she herself had lost out on." -Daniel

  Margaret sings "Fable" from the televised version of the original Broadway production of The Light in the Piazza.

VALENTINE'S DAY COUPLES EXTRAVAGANZA

A celebration of favorite couples from musicals, TV, and movies.
By Shoshana Greenberg (lyricist/bookwriter)

Musical Theater

1. Dot and George (Sunday in the Park With George)
Favorite Couple Moment: We Do Not Belong Together ("Tell me not to go!!")

 

2. Marian Paroo and Gregory Harold Hill (The Music Man)
Favorite Couple Moment: Marian knew Harold was lying about being a band leader all along. "Harold, the town wasn't even built until aught six. I tore this page out of an Indiana Journal. I was going to use it against you, but now I give to you with all my heart."

3. Julie and Steve (Show Boat)
Favorite Couple Moment: He sucks her blood!! Now, that's love.

 
4. The Baker and the Baker's Wife (Into the Woods)
Favorite Couple Moment: "It Takes Two"

5. Phyllis and Ben (Follies)
Favorite Couple Moment: The end of Ben's breakdown. ("PHYLLIS!!!!!" "I'm here, Ben; I'm right here.")

TV Shows

1, David and Maddie (Moonlighting)
Favorite Couple Moment: Season three's "Big Man On Mulberry Street." After a trip to NYC, during which David attempts to confront his re-married ex-wife, Maddie borrows half a shoulder.

 

SCREAM: 15 YEARS LATER

Remembering the horror classic.
By Shoshana Greenberg (Lyricist/Bookwriter)

Exactly 15 years ago (well, on February 7, 1997), I saw the movie Scream for the first time. I had never seen a horror movie in the theater and hadn't seen many on video except for a few at sleepovers. It was also my first R-rated movie without an adult. I went with a birthday party, and because we were 14 the birthday girl's mom bought the tickets for us. I didn't even know what the movie was about.

My movie stub from seeing Scream on 2.7.97.

Even though I don't like slasher movies, seeing Scream was a seminal movie-going experience. To this day I can recall the sights, sounds, and fears of that evening. From Drew Barrymore's opening sequence to the final moments, I clutched my friend's hand with one hand and used the other to cup my ear and press my other ear into the seat.  When the lights came up, we all shuffled out in a daze, shaking. Suddenly, nothing felt safe anymore. I constantly thought someone with a Scream mask was going to jump out and stab me. In school that week I went into the bathroom during class only to promptly run out as I recalled the school bathroom scene in the film.

The terrifying Scream mask.

FRANGIBLE CONCINNITY

A bi-weekly cartoon in 3 installments.
By Shoshana Greenberg (lyrcist/bookwriter)

SHOSHANA GREENBERG is a writer, lyricist, bookwriter, and playwright.  http://about.me/shoshanagreenberg
EMAIL HER |  FACEBOOK | TWITTER | OTHER POSTS BY THIS AUTHOR

IT'S ALWAYS RIGHT NOW UNTIL IT'S GOB SQUAD'S KITCHEN

What you get when you combine Daniel Kitson's latest show with Gob Squad's Kitchen.
By Shoshana Greenberg (Lyricist/Bookwriter)

Last Sunday I saw two extraordinary works of theater, but what made them extraordinary was not just the productions but the experience of seeing them back to back. Daniel Kitson's It's Always Right Now Until It's Later at St. Ann's Warehouse and Gob Squad's Kitchen (You've Never Had It So Good) at The Public Theater made for an engrossing five hour period in which I experienced the entirety of life itself.

Daniel Kitson in It's Always Right Now Until It's Later at St. Ann's Warehouse.

In It's Always Right Now Until It's Later, the stage is empty save a chair, a small step ladder, and dozens of light bulbs suspended from the ceiling. Kitson runs from bulb to bulb as he tells the stories of William Rivington and Caroline Carpenter--one story from birth to death and the other backward, from death to birth. The characters' lives don't intertwine, however. The stories are just about two peoples' lives and the many moments that fill them. Kitson describes life as a deluge and these moments as drops in the ocean of that flood. He says that our brains fill in the gaps between these moments, but that there are, in fact, no real gaps in time.

Gob Squad's Kitchen, and the Andy Warhol films that inspire the piece, give us the gaps.  Four members of the British-German group Gob Squad (the cast changes nightly, sometimes with the same actors playing different roles) attempt to reenact Warhol's 1965 film Kitchen, as well as parts of his movies Sleep, Eat, Kiss, and Screen Test, in which someone sleeps for eight hours, eats, engages in three-minute kisses, and sits for a long screen test, respectively. By the end of Gob Squad's delightful experiment, four members of the audience have taken the actors' places, and we are left with the hauntingly beautiful line: "In 100 years, people will look at this and say: 'That's why.'"

 

The combination of Daniel Kitson's tiny moments with Gob Squad's stretches of seemingly mundane routine equals the breath of human experience. Unfortunately, It's Always Right Now Until It's Later closes today, but you can still see Gob Squad's Kitchen at The Public Theater for one more week until February 5. You won't get the entire human experience, but you'll get a part that, as Gob Squad says, looks for "the hidden depths beneath the shiny surfaces of modern life."

SHOSHANA GREENBERG is a writer, lyricist, bookwriter, and playwright.  http://about.me/shoshanagreenberg
EMAIL HER |  FACEBOOK | TWITTER | OTHER POSTS BY THIS AUTHOR

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FRANGIBLE CONCINNITY

A bi-weekly cartoon in 3 installments.
By Shoshana Greenberg (Lyricist/Bookwriter)

 

SHOSHANA GREENBERG is a writer, lyricist, bookwriter, and playwright.  http://about.me/shoshanagreenberg
EMAIL HER |  FACEBOOK | TWITTER | OTHER POSTS BY THIS AUTHOR

 

10 SIGNS YOU ARE AN ADULT

What it means to be a grown-up, according to Shoshana.
By Shoshana Greenberg (lyricist/bookwriter)

I've read many "10 ways you know you are an adult" lists, and most of them are wrong. Some imply that adulthood means not depending on your parents anymore, settling down, and/or buying a house. This one says that when you become an adult you start spending more money on furniture and nice gifts for friends. Anyone who works in theater (among other fields) knows that one doesn't necessarily make more money as one gets older.

So if I'm not settled down or haven't purchased nice furniture, am I not an adult? I'm pretty sure I am, so I've devised my own top 10 signs and added my experiences. Feel free to refute any of these and/or add your own.

 

1. You have more confidence and trust yourself more.
Things that may have previously sent me into a shame spiral are much easier to let go or deal with. I look less to others to define me and more within, and I'm more likely to say, "I'm awesome," rather than, "I suck."

2. You try to eat more fruits and vegetables.
Notice I say, "try." I don't always get my daily serving, but over the past few years I've made more of an effort to buy more frozen dinners with vegetables, order more veggie meals in restaurants, and buy more bananas from the fruit stand.

A recent meal to which I added vegetables.

3. You stop throwing tantrums.
I've had some minor setbacks, but, in general, tantrums are a thing of the past. I now deal with my thwarted desires calmly and rationally.

4. Your free time is increasingly hard to come by.
Remember free time? At some point the idea of "free time" turned into "wasting time." Sure, I can carve out time in my schedule for appointments and major events, but most time is spent either working, writing, or avoiding working/writing. Even if you don't write, there's usually still work or something important you should be doing.

STRONG WOMEN SINGING

Help create a top ten list of the strongest female characters in musicals.
By Shoshana Greenberg (Lyricist-Bookwriter)

Who are your favorite female characters in musicals? Are there many of them? Not enough? How many are the central character, the character whose story is being told? To examine this more closely, I'm creating a top ten list of the strongest female characters in musicals. But I need everyone's help.

Elphaba and Glinda in Wicked.

Think Progress's Alyssa Rosenberg is doing a similar project with strong female characters on television called Building the Next Generation of Great Television Women. Instead of complaining about a dearth of female characters, the idea is to celebrate the ones that do exist. I conducted a similar awesome-women-on-television project among my friends many years ago, and it was a fun way to talk about the characters we love and realize just how many there are and how many there still need to be.

I've always wanted (and have made a few attempts) to expand the television character discussion to characters from musicals. Musicals offer many female roles, but are these roles strong characters? What makes a character strong? Power, how much the person care for others, and how often she defies expectations could be factors. Unlike movies, television, or plays, musicals give their characters songs, and the types of songs characters sing could also play a role in what makes them strong.

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Sutton Foster in Little Women.

I hope you'll join the discussion and post your entries!

Here are the rules:

THE THEATER LOTTERY

Lottery vs. line. A case against the lottery rush ticket system.
By Shoshana Greenberg (lyricist/bookwriter)

 

The last time I waited for rush tickets, I got up very early. I stood in line for two hours. I brought reading material, but I didn't need it. I chatted with a guy from Australia directly behind me. He was impressed that I knew the Australian children's movie, Dot and the Kangaroo. When the box office opened, I purchased my ticket to Chicago and headed to work (I had made plans to come in slightly late). I spent two hours in that line, and for other shows I've spent more. I don't consider that time wasted--I wanted to see the show affordably, I put in the time, and I got my ticket.

I will not, however, waste my time with lotteries. Lotteries don't care who I am, how much I love theater, and how this might be my only way to afford this show. I have the same chance of winning as a passer-by who thinks, "Look, a show! I don't know what it is, but I'll put my name in and just see what happens." I've tried lotteries a handful of times but have never won. I stopped trying because I realized that the result could be the same every night. Everyone is given the same chance, but not the same opportunity.


The Book of Mormon lottery

As of last month, four Broadway shows have lotteries for rush tickets: The Book of Mormon, Godspell, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and Wicked. Lotteries can help manage large crowds and, depending on preferences and scheduling, may at times be a better option for some people. Would it be possible, then, for these shows to offer both a rush line and the lottery system? That way those who do not want to waste time with lotteries can almost guarantee (depending on availability) their tickets with an early wake-up call, while those who want to forgo the line can stop by the lottery.

Theaters and producers should use rush tickets to reward people who really want to see their shows. Lotteries can't guarantee that everyone who wants to will have the chance. Purchasing rush tickets should be possible for everyone, not just those whose names are drawn by the hand of fate.

SHOSHANA GREENBERG is a writer, lyricist, bookwriter, and playwright.  http://about.me/shoshanagreenberg
EMAIL HER |  FACEBOOK | TWITTER | OTHER POSTS BY THIS AUTHOR

FRANGIBLE CONCINNITY

A new bi-weekly cartoon.
By Shoshana Greenberg (Lyricist/Bookwriter)

 

 

SHOSHANA GREENBERG is a writer, lyricist, bookwriter, and playwright.  http://about.me/shoshanagreenberg
EMAIL HER |  FACEBOOK | TWITTER | OTHER POSTS BY THIS AUTHOR