Dissertation
Behind the masc: performing masculinity in Dogfight, Dear Evan Hansen, and Hadestown
University of Iowa
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
Spring 2026
Abstract
Musical theater offers a powerful cultural forum for interrogating masculinity, engaging audiences with live performances of music and gender. This dissertation explores how masculinities are constructed, performed, and perceived on the Broadway stage in three contemporary musicals: Dogfight (2012), Dear Evan Hansen (2016), and Hadestown (2019). Using R.W. Connell’s hierarchy of multiple masculinities as a frame, I show how hegemonic masculinity, which is predicated on possessing domination, control, and affluence, is represented through music, performance, and narrative. My findings are based off live viewing experiences in New York, Milwaukee, and Iowa City. I also engage with recordings of productions at The New York Public Library’s Theater on Film and Tape Archive, original cast recordings, interviews, and critical reception. To account for the different dimensions of on-stage masculinities, my research incorporates analysis of scores, vocal performance techniques, choreography, staging, and costuming. In Dogfight I examine how a homosocial grouping of marines performs hegemonic masculinity as a collective that is ultimately challenged by individualized performances of masculinity that do not align with hegemony. Musically, I consider dissonances, texture, and vocal performance as key signifiers of masculinity. My analysis of Dear Evan Hansen examines how the main character’s performance of marginalized masculinity is contingent on his disability of anxiety, his position as an outsider, and his low socioeconomic status. Despite his feelings of marginalization, the main character still aspires toward being perceived as performing a hegemonic masculinity, which is the catalyst for the entire musical’s main narrative threads of becoming popular, attaining a girlfriend, and acquiring monetary wealth. In this analysis, I engage with musical repetition and vocal performance as central lines of inquiry. My final analysis of Hadestown examines how an updated Orpheus myth situates a binary contrast between Hades’s performance of hegemonic masculinity and Orpheus’s performance of marginalized masculinity. Notably, Orpheus in this musical does not seemingly desire hegemony, and instead pushes toward social collectivism. In this final case study, I consider lyrics, instrumentation, and tessituras as topics for musical exploration. Studying these three musicals together demonstrates the continued power of masculinities that shape performance, narrative, and musical choices in this medium.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Behind the masc: performing masculinity in Dogfight, Dear Evan Hansen, and Hadestown
- Creators
- Zane Larson
- Contributors
- Nathan Platte (Advisor)Marian Wilson Kimber (Committee Member)Trevor Harvey (Committee Member)Lina Murillo (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Music (Musicology)
- Date degree season
- Spring 2026
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- Number of pages
- xiv, 210 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2026 Zane Larson
- Language
- English
- Date submitted
- 04/27/2026
- Description illustrations
- color illustrations, music
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references (page 201-210).
- Public Abstract (ETD)
The Broadway musical is an exciting medium for the study of how music and gender are constructed and performed. I use three musicals, Dogfight (2012), Dear Evan Hansen (2016), and Hadestown (2019), to explore how masculinities are constructed through music, narrative, and performance on the Broadway stage. To investigate masculinity in these works, I use R. W. Connell’s framework of a multiplicity of masculinities. This framework accounts for how masculinity is not one definite trait but is reliant on various social relations. In Dogfight, I examine how groups of men adhere to social norms of masculinity and how they individually assert their masculinity through violence against women. My analysis of Dear Evan Hansen explores how anxiety, loneliness, and low socioeconomic status can contribute to marginalization in relation to masculinity. Finally, my study of Hadestown compares the performance of masculinities with a main character who performs masculinity with complete authority and domination, and a character who rejects these ideas of masculinity
- Academic Unit
- School of Music
- Record Identifier
- 9985177174202771
Metrics
1 Record Views