Professor Jeffrey Magee of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will present “Black Rose and Her Dream Deferred” as part of the Richard Murphy Musicology Colloquium Series in Bibbins 223.
In this talk, he will discuss the 2025 Broadway production of Gypsy, directed by George C. Wolfe and starring Audra McDonald. This production inspired much commentary about the implications of its color-conscious casting and, as with all the divas who have starred in the show, about McDonald’s performance in the arduous role of Rose. This talk will place that production and commentary in the context of his book- in-progress, tentatively titled Gypsy and the American Dream, and reflect on how the show’s newly racialized framing invites comparison with another classic play that, like Gypsy, premiered in 1959: A Raisin in the Sun. Both shows feature a strong single mother determined to realize a dream deferred, with different results. Together, they illuminate meanings of the American dream that became contested during the 1950s and early 1960s, meanings that still resonate today.
About Jeffrey Magee
Magee is an Oberlin alum and professor of music at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of two books, The Uncrowned King of Swing: Fletcher Henderson and Big Band Jazz and Irving Berlin’s American Theater, both published by Oxford University Press. His research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and recognized with awards from ASCAP, the Society for American Music, the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, and the Kurt Weill Foundation. In administrative roles, he has served as director of the school of music (2012-2019) and as associate dean of the college of media (2019-2022), and he is currently interim head of the department of journalism (2025-27). His current book project, tentatively titled Gypsy and the American Dream, is under contract with Oxford University Press.
About the Colloquium Series
The Richard Murphy Musicology Colloquium was begun in 1992 by Professor Claudia Macdonald to foster an exchange of ideas on music between colleagues in both the Conservatory and the College. The series was expanded in 1997 to include outside speakers as well, and named in honor of Richard Murphy, who taught music history at Oberlin from 1946 to 1978, and was much revered and beloved by his students. He died in 1993.
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Conservatory visitors are asked to enter the complex through either Bibbins Hall’s east entrance (off College Place) or the Conservatory Lounge’s west entrance (off S. Professor St., adjacent to the Conservatory Pond). All other entrances will be closed to the public
