The Body Politics of Broadway: An Excerpt From the Recently Released Book Broadway Bodies: A Critical History of Conformity Sheds Light on Musical Theater’s Longtime Fixation on Physique
The dominance of what I call the Broadway Body—the hyper-fit, muscular, tall, conventionally attractive, exceptionally able triple-threat performer (one highly skilled in acting, dancing, and singing)—became Broadway’s ideal body as the result of a confluence of aesthetic, economic, and sociocultural factors.