Tyler Folkedahl

Stephanie Murry & Pamela Kalbfleisch

HON 494

3/8/18

Thesis Abstract: Women in Sondheim

My thesis is an analysis of ​Company, Follies, ​and ​Gypsy​, three musicals written by

Stephen Sondheim. I am analyzing the texts using traditional theatrical text analysis methods

based off of those outlined by Aristotle in ​Poetics ​as well as through a materialist feminist lens

as described by Sue Ellen-Case, Elaine Aston, Laura Mulvey, and other feminist scholars. In

comparing these two analyses, we can see the ways in which these works of theater considered to

be superlative markers of one of the greatest theatrical composers in the history of the American

musical theater are steeped in patriarchal ideals of femininity and gender.

In working from Aristotle’s system of analysis, we are inherently beginning in a place of

sexism, given that he explicitly states in his work that women are sub-par protagonists of

theatrical works because they do not have the same mental and physical capacities of men.

Because our culture places such a high value on the classics and continues to teach from these

methods, these ideas have seeped into the cultural consciousness of contemporary society, and

therefore into these theatrical works. In ​Gypsy ​and ​Follies​, our featured protagonists are women,

and as is typical of an Aristolean tragedy, they meet their demise due to their own hamartia, or

tragic flaw. In ​Company​, we are presented with a male protagonist surrounded by women and

their husbands, with the women functioning not as characters Bobby, the protagonist, can engage

with and learn from, but as potential sexual conquests, neurotic messes, and cold bitches.
 Through a materialist feminist analysis of these shows, we get a richer view of these

women that exposes the flaws in their creation, but also provides a more complex view of why

they behave the way that they do. Specifically, when analyzing ​Company ​through a materialist

feminist lens, we view these women in the context of their own lives rather than filtered through

that of Bobby, and can begin to understand their actions as deeper than the tropes they are

painted as. With ​Gypsy​, we see Rose not as an overbearing stage mother projecting her failed

dreams onto her children, but as a woman fighting to break through a male-dominated society for

both herself and her daughters at whatever costs possible. Similarly, Sally in ​Follies ​should be

viewed not as a lovesick and immature girl, but as a woman who was robbed of her sense of

stability and thrust into a world that took advantage of her looks and talent without providing her

with the structure she needed to grow and mature into the woman she is.

My thesis will culminate in a cabaret performance on April 29th featuring songs from

each of these shows performed in drag. This cabaret performance aims to deconstruct the

notions of gender placed upon these women and their actions, and expose the patriarchal bias in

their portrayals. While all of the women in these shows present problems to a feminist

theatregoer, there are ways to fight against these problems, acknowledge them, and even work

with them to create a layered and complex performance that goes beyond gender stereotypes.