Singing the praises of independent women
What makes a professor of business administration write a musical revue featuring pop songs about women's quest for independence?
Dorothy Marcic is such a professor, and she created ``Respect: A Musical Journey," now in previews at the Stuart Street Playhouse. She teaches -- part-time now -- at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. This home to country music is a hotbed of other kinds of music, and she started going to concerts and taking voice lessons. Then she began to use pop songs in her classes to illustrate points about management. Students, she said, loved it. In a recent phone interview, she talked about her class, bursting into song snippets as illustration.
``When I talked about the typical boss, I would say he wants followers who are obedient: `I will follow himmmm . . .' People can start to feel confined with that kind of boss: `Chains . . .' Then they start to push back, get defiant: `You don't own me.' "
Marcic was asked in 1999 to give a talk about how popular music illustrated gender issues. The research she gathered for the talk ended up as fodder for a 2002 book, ``Respect: Women in Popular Music."
``I looked through the lists of the Top 40 and went back to 1900 and found the story of women laid out in the songs," she says, ``from codependence -- `Johnny Get Angry' -- to women going through an angry phase -- `You Don't Own Me,' `These Boots Are Made for Walking' -- to independence -- `I Will Survive,' `Hero,' `Greatest Love of All,' `Independent Woman.'"
Out of that talk, she put together, with a manager's help, a one-woman show, ``The Musical History of Women," in which Marcic, playing herself as a professor, interspersed narration and songs about the different phases in women's journey toward independence. The show toured Australia, Israel, Holland, New Zealand, England, and South Africa.
That ran from 2000 until 2003, when she launched ``Respect," a four-woman version of the show. The show's 60 songs range from the 1904 ``Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey?" to the 2006 Martina McBride number ``In My Daughter's Eyes. "
Another production of the show opened in Cleveland last month, and one in Orlando opens in a few weeks. The Boston version features Tiana Checchia, Amiee Collier, and Kareema Castro, who play both famous and ordinary women. Kathy St. George portrays Marcic.
Perhaps that's just as well. Marcic recognizes she's no pro. ``I'd never get a record deal," she says, ``but as far as management professors go, I'm a pretty good singer."
``Respect, a Musical Journey" runs through Nov. 26. Tickets: $45. 800-447-7400, www.telecharge.com
Tickets: $10-$25. Reception at the Charles Hotel, $75. 617-496-2222.
