ABSTRACT
Through the lens of a classroom discussion about the musical Oklahoma!, this chapter explores the practice and benefits of a feminist lens in the study of musical theatre history. Offering a multi-generational perspective, the chapter speaks to the evolution of musical theatre scholarship and its engagement with inclusivity and intersectionality on Broadway stages. Undergraduate theatre programs have an opportunity and an obligation to study, and indeed, to model a more diverse future for musical theatre. A feminist perspective provides an essential lens through which to study one of America’s most popular artistic forms, with an eye towards how gender, race, sexuality, and class have been scripted and performed throughout history. In this curriculum, undergraduates use their knowledge of what musical theatre has been historically in order to imagine what it might become in the future.
