Drawing upon Broadway musicals ranging from Irene (1919) to Gypsy (1959), Maya Cantu considers how Cinderella Broadway musicals from the 1920s through the 1950s adapted and transformed Perrault's fairy tale icon in order to address changing social and professional roles for American women.
"Drawing from feminist theory and theatre history, Maya Cantu argues that the Cinderella myth, an amalgamation of a rag-to-riches story and a magical marriage plot, offers a compelling matrix to negotiate theatrically the various economic, gendered, and marital expectations for working women. ... American Cinderellas is a lush, captivating, and necessary addition to the fields of theatre history, women performers, and feminism in performance." (Yasmine Marie Jahanmir, Theatre Survey, Vol. 58 (2), May, 2017)
"American Cinderellas provides a compelling and detailed insight into the development of female narratives from the familiar fairy tale into a fundamental component of storytelling in American musical theatre writing. It is bound to inspire further study of the themes it discusses and will hopefully encourage further scholarly interest in the real-life women it also showcases." (Hannah Robbins, Studies in Musical Theatre, Vol. 10 (1), 2017)
"Since there are no other similar titles that offer a critical analysis of this topic, American Cinderellas on the Broadway Musical Stage is an important resource that fills a gap in the scholarly literature. Cantu's book would fit nicely in a graduate seminar class about female characters on Broadway ... . American Cinderellas on the Broadway Musical Stage examines twentieth-century American culture through the lens of female characters in theatre." (Alicia M. Goodman, The Journal of American Culture, Vol. 40 (3), 2017)
"American Cinderellas provides a compelling and detailed insight into the development of female narratives from the familiar fairy tale into a fundamental component of storytelling in American musical theatre writing. It is bound to inspire further study of the themes it discusses and will hopefully encourage further scholarly interest in the real-life women it also showcases." (Hannah Robbins, Studies in Musical Theatre, Vol. 10 (1), 2017)
"Since there are no other similar titles that offer a critical analysis of this topic, American Cinderellas on the Broadway Musical Stage is an important resource that fills a gap in the scholarly literature. Cantu's book would fit nicely in a graduate seminar class about female characters on Broadway ... . American Cinderellas on the Broadway Musical Stage examines twentieth-century American culture through the lens of female characters in theatre." (Alicia M. Goodman, The Journal of American Culture, Vol. 40 (3), 2017)