In the most broad terms, I am interested in how contemporary American popular culture explores sociocultural realities through performance, music, and genre. I specialize in 21st-century musical theatre, most often through the lens of Deaf/disability, gender, and adaptation. Below are descriptions of and links to select projects, current and past. For more information, please see my CV or contact me at stephaniejlim.phd [at] gmail.com.
📖 RECENT PUBLICATIONS & EVENTS
“Global Hands in Liberation: Deaf West Theatre, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and White Hands Choir’s Fidelio”
Published in Studies in Musical Theatre‘s Special Issue on Disability in Musical Theatre, this article explores Deaf worldbuilding as engendered in Deaf West Theatre and LA Philharmonic’s co-production of Beethoven’s Fidelio. Using Mary Louise Pratt’s notion of the contact zone as a starting point, my article traces how Fidelio‘s Deaf and hearing participants navigate the complexities of their cross-cultural exchange, on- and off-stage.
The article is available on the Intellect website.
“‘Everybody’s Got the Right to their Dreams’: The Violent Pursuit of the American Dream in Assassins and Hamilton”
My chapter compares how Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton and Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins present the American Dream and specifically center their narratives around violent, revolutionary acts. Though the shows span very different eras and are stylized musically in very different ways, I assert that both musicals emphasize the paradoxes of bootstrap ideology and highlight characters’ hyper-Americanism.
The book is available from McFarland.
“‘The Smell of Rebellion’ and ‘The Stench of Revolt’: The Carnivalesque Dramaturgy of Matilda the Musical from Page to Stage”
In this chapter, I trace the dramaturgical shifts that occur from Roald Dahl’s 1988 children’s novel Matilda to Tim Minchin and Dennis Kelly’s 2010 stage musical. Applying Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of the carnivalesque, I pay particular attention to the added musical numbers and sub-narrative (the “Acrobat Story”), as well as to the show’s complex treatment of female and child characters. I argue that Matilda the Musical presents a surface-level em3phasis on female empowerment while ultimately maintaining conventional social and gendered hierarchies.
The book is available from Bloomsbury.
“For Progress or Profit: The Possibilities and Limitations of Playing with Gender in 21st Century Musical Theatre”
Prompted by the uptick in gender play within recent musical revivals, including Oklahoma!, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Pippin, my chapter charts the dramaturgical shifts, consequences, and limitations of gender-bending and/or gender-swapping well-known stage roles. While the frequency of these non-traditional casting choices reveals the theatre industry’s complicated impulse towards both progressivism and profit, I argue that creative teams must move beyond rewriting and recasting and instead towards creating original, inclusive narratives.
The book is available from Intellect.
💭 UPCOMING PUBLICATIONS & CURRENT PROJECTS
“Reinventing Liveness in 21st Century TV Musicals: Developing a Formula for Success through Cultivating Unpredictability and Fan-Based Nostalgia”
Slated for publication in The Oxford Handbook of the Television
Musical, edited by Jessica Sternfeld and Raymond Knapp, this chapter discusses the phenomenon of the live television musicals broadcast by NBC and FOX in the 2010s (including Grease, Hairspray, The Sound of Music, and Peter Pan, to name a few.). I focus on how the liveness of theatre and the cinematic qualities of television are juxtaposed to create the subgenre’s unique formula for success.
A clip from Hairspray Live!, produced by NBC in 2016.
“The Signs/Sounds of Rage and Love: Voice, Identity, and Community in Deaf West Theatre’s American Idiot”
This project examines Deaf West Theatre and Center Theatre Group’s 2024 co-production of American Idiot, which featured d/Deaf and hearing artists. Focusing on the production’s casting, staging, and choreography through the framework of disability studies, I argue that the show resists hearing notions of voice and reframes the protest musical through a Deaf lens.
A clip of “St. Jimmy” from the DWT/CTG 2024 production of American Idiot.
“Suspending (Dis)Belief: Puppet Performance in Life of Pi”
This project interrogates the ambiguity generated by puppet performance, one that highlights audiences’ labor as co-creators and invites them to exist in the tension between belief and disbelief. Using Life of Pi as a case study, I explore the adaptation of Yann Martel’s novel from cinema to theatre. Whereas the 2012 film adaptation utilizes CGI and visual effects to collapse the gap between realism and fantasy, the use of puppetry in Chakrabarti’s stage production embraces it, both enhancing and mirroring the evolving crises of protagonist Pi Patel’s narrative.
The West End cast of Life of Pi‘s performance on the 2022 Olivier Awards.
“Through Deaf Ears: Performing the Politics of Hearing in Sound of Metal (2019)”
This project analyzes the embodiment of deaf “hearing” in Darius Marder’s 2019 film Sound of Metal, a film about a professional drummer (Ruben Stone, played by Riz Ahmed) who becomes deaf due to his occupation. Stone’s challenging journey, on the one hand, reveals both the stigma of disability and the hearing-centrism of the music world. On the other hand, the film depicts a partial Deaf “coming-of-age” narrative that seeks to upend audist attitudes altogether.
The 2020 Toronto International Film Festival trailer for Sound of Metal, later released by Amazon Studios.
⌛ SELECT MEDIA APPEARANCES
Full video footage of the panel at UCLA.
“Representing Disability After CODA: A Panel Discussion” | University of California, Los Angeles | 2022
I participated in a panel on representations of disability in theater, film and performance with Dr. Victoria Ann Lewis (founder of CTG’s Other Voices program) and Leroy Moore (KripHop Nation). This panel was hosted by UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television, Disability Studies, and Center for the Study of Women.
“Pretty Women – Sweeney Todd” | Putting It Together Podcast | 2022
I joined Kyle Marshall on his Putting It Together podcast to discuss one of my favorite musical numbers from Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, “Pretty Women.” Our conversation explores the ways that Sondheim plays with audience expectations through his musical composition while simultaneously revealing the true natures of Judge Turpin and Sweeney Todd.
The full podcast episode is available on Transistor.fm.
The full Shakespeare Sings episode, hosted by LA Opera Connects.
“The Bard on Broadway” (Episode 8) | Shakespeare Sings | 2020
I joined Katherine Powers (current Executive Director of Pacific Opera Project) for her LA Opera Connects 8-part series, Shakespeare Sings. During the episode, we discuss Shakespeare’s impact on Broadway musicals, including West Side Story, Kiss Me, Kate, and Something Rotten!
