The Characterisation of Women in Musical Theatre

Name: Hannah Bailey
School: Performance and Cultural Industries
Mentor: Sally Brown

Name of Research Event: An introduction to Sally Brown’s PhD entitled "How do Cultural, Social and Industry-led influences affect the Characterisation of Women in Musical Theatre?"

The research Sally presented in this seminar centred on The Scarlett Pimpernel, in particular the role of Marguerite in this narrative and how her characterisation has changed over time in the numerous adaptations of the original text. In many of these clips it was apparent that Marguerite’s whole narrative had been shifted in order to portray her as more innocent than in the original text, largely due to conceptions about how women should behave in the contemporary context. The ultimate aim of this research is to produce a new piece of musical theatre based upon The Scarlett Pimpernel, with a particular focus on the character of Marguerite and her portrayal. It appears that Sally wishes to explore the complexity and flaws of this character that are present within the original text, given Marguerite’s guilt due to essentially getting a group of people executed.

This research event was directly useful to me personally, as it relates, in its focus on the representation of women, to my dissertation topic of women in television crime dramas. Therefore, it was helpful to hear someone else discussing the portrayal of a female character (Marguerite) in thinking about the characters at the centre of my research. It was interesting to begin discussions around how the contemporary context influences the portrayal of women too, as this is a central consideration for my own research. Furthermore, as a fan of musical theatre I found having the opportunity to read a draft version of an excerpt from the musical interesting in getting a glimpse of the initial creative process.