Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

Date of Award

12-12-2025

Document Type

Honors Paper

Department

English

Advisor

Dr. Karen Steigman

First Committee Member

Dr. Paul Eisenstein

Second Committee Member

Dr. Michelle Acker

Keywords

Musicals, Film history, Bob Fosse, Artifice

Subject Categories

Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory | Film and Media Studies | Higher Education | Other Film and Media Studies

Abstract

The film musical genre is widely considered to uphold both the conventions of classical narrative cinema and the musical structure theorized by Rick Altman, where the romantic couple originally at odds, along with their opposing thematic ideals, are unified in the final utopian resolution of a successful show. In connection with Bertolt Brecht’s arguments for a critical audience and Susan Sontag’s theories of camp, this essay will argue that the backstage musical subgenre works, rather, in experimental or avant-garde ways by drawing attention to the mesmerizing artifice of performance and film. I will consider how films such as Donen and Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain and Arzner’s Dance, Girl, Dance announce this artifice through their incorporation of performance within the narrative, their direct camp or critical address of the film spectator, and their careful use of a diegetic audience. Expanding on work by Steven Belletto and Terri Gordon, I will then turn to Cabaret as I consider how Fosse furthers these backstage conventions to condemn his film spectator for our mesmerization by the fascist artifice and aesthetics both onstage at the Kit Kat Club and embedded within the film itself. I will look at how Fosse’s film denies catharsis, disrupts his spectator’s mesmerization through the crosscutting of decadent performance with Weimar violence, and invokes fascist aesthetics of collectivism reminiscent of the political films by Leni Riefenstahl. In a creative epilogue, I will examine Joel Grey’s personal essay on the show’s relevant warning as I theorize my own experience as both a performer and audience member in Cabaret.

Licensing Permission

Copyright, all rights reserved. Fair Use

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Acknowledgement 2

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