• “That's Where They Knew Me When”: Oklahoma Senior Follies and the Narrative of Decline

    Author(s):
    Jake Johnson (see profile)
    Date:
    2016
    Group(s):
    American Musicological Society, Music and Sound
    Subject(s):
    Music, United States, Twentieth century, Aging--Study and teaching, Musical theater, Musicology, Popular music
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    aging, American music, american musical theater, regionalism, 20th-century American music, Age studies, Musical theatre, Popular Music Studies
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6K250
    Abstract:
    American musical theater occupies a unique space relative to other popular music genres. This is particularly true with regards to the ways aging performers are valued. Whereas aging or aged voices in popular music are often revered as “authentic,” aging musical theater performers face an industry largely uninvested in positive representations of aging. Hence, musical theater sustains a presumed connection between aging and deterioration, what Margaret Morganroth Gullette describes as the “master narrative of decline.” The Senior Follies movement is designed to counter this decline narrative by granting value and purpose to aging performers through a Ziegfeld-inspired musical variety show. For nearly thirty years, Senior Follies productions have appeared in cities across the country, including Palm Springs, California; Dallas, Texas; Anderson, South Carolina; and, in recent years, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. My proximity to the latter group is the impetus for this study. I use my experience as musical director of the Oklahoma Senior Follies to highlight the effects the movement has had on Oklahoma City audiences and performers. As I argue in this ethnography, the Senior Follies movement not only engages the “master narrative of decline” but also undoes conventions of musical theater that have coupled aging with disability or invisibility. I also consider the emergence of the Oklahoma Senior Follies in relation to structural changes in the state’s professional theater company—Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma—to make some larger observations about the musical theater industry’s relationship with aging populations.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.5406/americanmusic.34.2.0243
    Publisher:
    University of Illinois Press
    Pub. Date:
    2016-9-3
    Journal:
    American Music
    Volume:
    34
    Issue:
    2
    ISSN:
    0734-4392
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    5 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
    Share this:

    Downloads

    Item Name: pdf thats_where_they_knew_me_when_the_oklah.pdf
      Download View in browser
    Activity: Downloads: 506

    Back to Deposits