Honors Projects

Abstract

Musical theatre has become popular with audiences around the world. Many musicals contain stories of hope and overcoming obstacles, especially in narratives concerning young women. Since the Bible also contains a wealth of stories that focus on strong women, it is interesting to consider what connections may be found between the women represented in this ancient text and the female characters in various musical theatre productions.

With these potential connections in mind, I ask the question: how is the Biblical trope of the uplifting of women represented in songs sung by female characters in musical theatre? Furthermore, how can the performance of musical theatre enhance our understanding of Biblical stories? To investigate these questions, I created a comparative analysis of six Biblical women and six musical theatre heroines to analyze narrative similarities between their stories. Then, I performed a song from each musical in a recital setting.

The comparative analysis resulted in the discovery of three types of thematic connections between the Bible stories and musical theatre stories explored. Meanwhile, the recital experience enhanced my understanding of the interior emotional journeys of the Biblical women I was analyzing.

Limitations to this study include a lack of replicable data regarding the influence of the recital performance on creating understanding. Furthermore, the difference between the Old and New Testaments regarding their representation in musical theatre is not fully addressed. This study contributes to existing research by focusing on how thematic aspects of women-centered Biblical stories can be found in musical theatre.

Department

Honors Program

Major

Communication

First Advisor

Geoffrey Stephenson, PhD.

First Advisor Department

Theatre and Film

Second Advisor

Stephannie Gearhart, PhD.

Second Advisor Department

English

Publication Date

4-29-2026

Download

Share

COinS