“Automatically, radically gay!”: How screen-to-stage musicals that rely on nostalgia normalize gay male stereotypes.

Abstract

In a world where spectators increasingly turn towards recreations of old and familiar narratives, this thesis aims to critically discuss one of musical theatre’s answers to this nostalgic turn: the screen-to-stage musical. Using media scholar Ryan Lizardi’s theory regarding “perpetual nostalgia” and Emily Keightley and Michael Pickering’s concept “retrotyping,” I argue that the nostalgia that is present in screen-to-stage musicals can hinder critical reflection by repeating idealized versions of old narratives that only pay attention to the positively valued aspects of these narratives and ignore their negative aspects. These idealized remakes of old media texts leave already held beliefs and ideological positions unchallenged, meaning that spectators aren’t given the opportunity to reflect on their ideologies. Another aspect of the screen-to-stage musical that I discuss, is the translation of conventions that is involved when a film is remade into a musical to appeal to nostalgia-driven spectators. Because the conventions of musical theatre can usually be characterised by making things bigger and brighter, I argue that certain aspects of films can be exaggerated in a screen-to-stage musical, which facilitates the reinforcement of stereotypes. In this thesis, specific attention is paid to gay male stereotypes, because musical theatre has a relatively large gay male spectatorship and it therefore seems strange that gay males are often represented in a stereotypical manner. It is also a subject that up until now has not been discussed very much. I then move to an analysis of three different screen-to-stage musicals: Heathers: The Musical, Mean Girls: The Musical and Legally Blonde: The Musical. In these analyses, I demonstrate how these screen-to-stage musicals can be understood as retrotypical remakes of their source material, which means that they hinder critical reflection in their spectators. I also demonstrate that with their use of musical theatre conventions, these musicals represent gay males in a stereotypical manner. I end each analysis by discussing how each musical addresses a certain longing that is related to its stereotypical representation of gay males, with which I illustrate how these musicals normalize gay male stereotypes and keep problematic ideologies with regards to gayness in place.