It's All Happening: [how Musical Theater Does High School]

"This book argues that high school musicals of the 2010s (Heathers, Bring it On, Jagged Little Pill, The Prom, Mean Girls, Be More Chill, and Dear Evan Hansen) collectively frame the high school experience as a kind of performance-both through narratives that often foreground the performing arts, and also by revelling in the ways adolescents navigate this challenging time by consciously performing versions of the self. By elevating an often-maligned adolescent genre, this book takes seriously the subversive potential of musicals set in high school to challenge oppressive systems, highlighting the ways in which these musicals wed fun with a commitment to social critique. The methodology of this book combines historical, textual, and musical analysis with ethnographic research"-- Provided by publisher.