Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford
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GRETCHEN CRYER AND NANCY FORD: ELEVATING THE FEMALE VOICE IN AMERICAN MUSICAL THEATER A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN MUSIC DECEMBER 2018 By Nancy Jane Kerns Thesis Committee: Katherine McQuiston, Chairperson Abigail Fine Laurence Paxton DEDICATION For my parents, Ellen Louise (Denzer) Kerns and Charles Fredric Kerns i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful for the support of so many people as I wrote my thesis. My Ohio visits with my sister, Pat, and my brother, Mike, and their families were filled with days of research, writing, and editing. They understood, and have continuously nurtured and cheered me on. My friends (and I wish I could name them all) have listened to, consoled, and encouraged me through many challenging moments, and celebrated with me in the happiest ones. My thesis committee generously provided the guidance I needed to see this project through. My patient and compassionate advisor, Dr. Kate McQuiston, spent countless hours wading through drafts, and consulting in person. Through her wisdom and writing expertise I was able to achieve far better results than I could have accomplished on my own. Dr. Abigail Fine provided perspectives, from the initial proposal through the final product, which changed the nature of my thesis, and greatly aided my writing process in general. In addition to his assistance with this project, Professor Laurence Paxton has guided me through two vocal performance degrees, and, as department chairperson, constantly looked after me during my thirteen years of learning. These three people have been an invaluable part of my education. My professors and colleagues have taught, inspired, and supported me. I wish to thank musicologist, Dr. Lesley Wright, for her early guidance on my thesis research and initial writing, and the voice faculty for assisting me in singing and performance, and understanding vocal pedagogy. Most significantly, I am indebted to Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford. They have generously set aside many hours to share and confirm the details of their stories through personal meetings, ongoing email correspondence, and a reading of my final draft. They provided me with unpublished demo recordings, scripts, and scores for their musicals, transcripts of recent public events, access to scrapbook materials and photographs, and rousing encouragement. They have inspired me in more ways than I could ever have anticipated. ii ABSTRACT Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford, along with most other female creators of musicals, remain in the shadows, in spite of an increased focus by the media on women’s contributions to society. The messages of Cryer and Ford’s dramatic themes and songs have not been fully understood by many critics and audience members. Scholarly and popular writings on women in theater remain scarce, and literature on Cryer and Ford contains errors and promotes misunderstandings. In this thesis, I argue that Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford, a writer and composer of musical theater respectively, tackled contemporary issues in their Broadway and off Broadway musicals, introduced new theatrical forms and musical genres to the stage, and have built a distinguished collaborative career and earned a meritorious position in musical theater heritage by incorporating these issues, in particular, those which pertain to women or those which affect women, into their works. I seek to correct and build upon extant writings and information from media resources. My thesis is the first monograph to detail the lives and works of Cryer and Ford, and to assess their contributions to the musical theater genre. My detailed case studies dissect several Cryer and Ford musicals, which speak directly to prominent images and ideas of the time, and reveal how their works emphasize the importance of interpersonal communication, and endorse humanism and, in particular, feminism. Cryer and Ford are trailblazers for other female musical writers, for whom they have advocated, and for whom I provide a comprehensive overview. iii CONTENTS Acknowledgments ...............................................................................................................ii Abstract.............................................................................................................................. iii Introduction .........................................................................................................................1 The Collaboration of Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford ................................................4 Thematic and Musical Material....................................................................................5 Literature Review .........................................................................................................8 Methodology...............................................................................................................25 Overview of Chapters.................................................................................................28 Chapter One: “Strong Woman Number” Female Writers and Composers in American Musical Theater.........................................32 Recognizing Female Contributions and Seeking Equality.........................................32 The 1900s-1950s.........................................................................................................40 The 1960s ...................................................................................................................44 The 1970s ...................................................................................................................47 The 1980s ...................................................................................................................59 The 1990s ...................................................................................................................61 Chapter Two: “Changing” Personal Reflections in Writing and Performance ............................................................67 Childhood ...................................................................................................................67 The DePauw Years .....................................................................................................69 The Pre-Professional Years ........................................................................................72 Formative Years in New York....................................................................................75 Cryer and Ford’s Collaborative Process.....................................................................77 iv Early Stage Musicals ..................................................................................................79 Other Productions.......................................................................................................88 A Young Female Market ............................................................................................91 The Elusive “Eleanor” Musical ..................................................................................93 Cabaret Performance ..................................................................................................97 Independent Works...................................................................................................102 Chapter Three: “You Know My Music” The Shows in Their Time ................................................................................................104 Now Is the Time for All Good Men...........................................................................107 Staging Pacifism in the 1960s ..................................................................................107 Production Summary and Critical Reception of Now Is The Time...........................108 The Book: Setting, Plot Synopsis, and Characters ...................................................109 Representation through Musical Eclecticism ...........................................................112 The Last Sweet Days of Isaac...................................................................................118 The Alienation of Isaac.............................................................................................118 Production Summary and Critical Reception of Isaac .............................................119 An Absurdist Musical? .............................................................................................121 Developing a Diegetic Musical ................................................................................125 The Book: Setting, Plot Synopsis, and Characters ...................................................127 New Musical Formats...............................................................................................133 The Music: Survey of Production Numbers.............................................................134 Shelter.......................................................................................................................137 The Musical is the Message: “What is Reality?” .....................................................137 Production Summary and Critical Reception of Shelter ..........................................139 v Voicing a Computer..................................................................................................142 The Book: Setting, Plot Synopsis, and Characters ...................................................146 The Music: