From Adelaide in "Guys and Dolls" to Nina in "In the Heights" and Elphaba in "Wicked," female characters in Broadway musicals have belted and crooned their way into the American psyche. In this lively book, Stacy Wolf illuminates the women of American musical theatre - performers, creators, and characters -- from the start of the cold war to the present day, creating a new, feminist history of the genre. Moving from decade to decade, Wolf first highlights the assumptions that circulated about gender and sexuality at the time. She then looks at the leading musicals to stress the key aspects of the plays as they relate to women, and often finds overlooked moments of empowerment for female audience members. The musicals discussed here are among the most beloved in the canon--"West Side Story," "Cabaret," "A Chorus Line," "Phantom of the Opera," and many others--with special emphasis on the blockbuster "Wicked." Along the way, Wolf demonstrates how the musical since the mid-1940s has actually been dominated by women--women onstage, women in the wings, and women offstage as spectators and fans.

Introduction: Gender, Genre, and Musical TheatreChapter One: 1950s Musicals and Queer Female DuetsChapter Two: The Single Woman and the Active Female Body in 1960s MusicalsChapter Three: The Ensemble as Queer "Family"Chapter Four: Women in the 1980s Megamusicals, Humming the SceneryChapter Five: Musicals in the 1990s-2000s: Female Protagonists, First and Last Numbers, and the Intersectional Performance of Race and GenderChapter Six: Queer Conventions in the Broadway Musical WickedEpilogue: Wicked Divas, Musical Theatre, and Internet Girl FansEndnotes