Ethnic mobilities and representations in Rose-Marie on stage and screen

Abstract

This article interrogates representations of ethnicity in the long-lived musical play Rose-Marie from 1924, with music by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart, book by Otto Harbach, and lyrics by Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II, and its subsequent MGM film adaptations in 1936 and 1954. The story is set in Canada, and images of Indigenous people include white-created tropes of children of nature, vicious savages and drunkards. These views are manifested aurally through Indianist musical tropes of the time, and are especially evident in ‘Indian Love Call’ and ‘Totem-Tom-Tom’. Whiteness is performed opposite portrayals of Indigenous people that range from the ‘noble savage’ of the famous ‘Indian Love Call’ to Wanda, a First Nations woman characterized as violent and over-sexualized in the 1924 and 1954 versions. Friml’s multifarious score includes recognizable Indianist tropes of the time as well as quintessential operetta and musical comedy fare, thus musicalizing cultural differences through established Eurocentric means. In Rose-Marie, the title character’s mobile ethnicity shifts from being presumably French-born French Canadian in the original to English Canadian in the 1936 film (starring Jeanette MacDonald) and French Canadian in the 1954 version (starring Ann Blyth). Although Rose-Marie and Wanda behave in similar ways, Rose-Marie’s singing whiteness allows her to become a romantic lead, whereas Wanda, whose dance-dominated performance mode emphasizes a sensual physicality, is vilified because of her ethnic heritage.