Studies in Musical Theatre 13.1

Choreographing conjoinment:

Side Show ’s fleshly fixations and disability simulation

Ryan Silverman, Emily Padgett, Erin Davie, and Matthew Hydzik in Side Show at the Kennedy Center. Photograph by Joan Marcus.

choreographing conjoinment

This article aims to amplify disability theory’s impact in performance studies by generating a framework for understanding disability representation in musical theatre. Taking the original and revival Broadway productions of Side Show (1997, 2014) as a case study, I articulate how the musical simulates disability through a ‘choreography of conjoinment’ that relies on the exceptional able-bodiedness of the actors playing conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton. Using disability as a category of analysis reveals how disabled bodies are made to be maximally productive iterations of themselves in musicals. To support this claim, I track the shift from the 1997 production’s co-construction of disability by the actors and audience, which replicates the social model of disability, to the 2014 revival’s grounding in a diagnostic realism typical of disability’s medical model. Side Show’s trajectory generates possibilities for considering the musical as an archive for disability representation and knowledge, bioethical inquiry, and artistic innovation.

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"When a point goes for a walk": Accessible Design and the World of the Play