Public Health through Musicals
By Avery Birr Moje & William Lopez
WHY PUBLIC HEALTH IN MUSICALS?
In April 2022, as part of a course on the impacts of law enforcement on public health, we began a conversation about the portrayals of law enforcement violence in public health musicals like “Come From Away,” “Ragtime,” and “Chicago.” Over the course of this conversation, we found ourselves thinking about the broader picture of public health in musicals and the ways that this art form can be used to convey a variety of public health messages. We began thinking more deeply about the ways that public health intersects with musicals, and from there we fed into our deep love for both public health and musicals.
METHODS
MUSICAL SELECTION
A preliminary list of musicals was derived from the list of Tony award-winning musicals and nominees. From there, each musical’s brief description was reviewed for references to public health issues. A list of public health issues for each musical was compiled. Musicals that did not have observable issues mentioned in their brief descriptions were excluded from the final list.
THEME DEVELOPMENT & ASSIGNMENT
Separately, a list of 10 public health themes was developed from the American Public Health Association’s (APHA) list of 35 current issues. The topics and issues list was aggregated into 10 categories based on similarities in the topics. These themes are: 1) disease, 2) environmental health, 3) substance use, 4) mental health, 5) injury and violence prevention, 6) education, 7) developmental/lifespan, 8) racism, 9) immigrant health, and 10) reproductive and sexual health.
We describe the categories in each theme below. The final three themes– racism, immigrant health, and reproductive and sexual health–were distinctive enough to warrant being their own themes.
- Disease included the following APHA issues: communicable disease, chronic disease, ebola, vaccines, monkeypox, zika, COVID, polio
- Environmental health included the following APHA issues: climate change, healthy housing, preparedness, community water fluoridation, environmental health, lead contamination, healthy community design, transportation
- Substance use included the following APHA issues: drug overdose, tobacco, substance misuse
- Mental health included the following APHA issues: mental health, suicide
- Injury and violence prevention included the following APHA issues: gun violence, injury prevention
- Education included the following APHA issues: school-based health care, high school graduation, public health accreditation
- Developmental/lifespan included the following APHA issues: aging, maternal & child health
- Racism
- Immigrant health
- Reproductive and sexual health
An additional theme of “poverty and socio-economic status” was added for a total of eleven public health themes. Though many of the APHA issues are related to poverty and socio-economic status, none of the ten aggregated categories focused on the theme, which is a critical driver in public health that we believed needed to be represented in the project.
Public health issues from each musical were then sorted into the aggregated APHA themes to create the final spreadsheet. On the left are listed Tony-Award-winning musicals and nominees for Best Musical from 2000 to 2022. On the top row are the eleven public health themes, plus data related to access to the musical (YouTube clips, soundtrack availability, etc). Click the image below to access the spreadsheet.
RESULTS
After compiling this information, we created individual study guides that can be used to facilitate conversations around specific musicals. We began with general questions applicable to every musical:
WHAT ARE THE KEY PUBLIC HEALTH THEMES IN THIS MUSICAL?
WHERE COULD I FIND THIS MUSICAL?
CONTENT QUESTIONS:
1. Which song was your favorite from this musical? What about the song made it your favorite?
2. What aspects of this musical (i.e. lights, staging, dancing, music, storyline) did you find most unique, interesting, or intriguing?
3. Would you watch this musical again? If yes, why?
We then added critical thinking questions specific to each musical. For example, below are the critical thinking questions related to Les Misérables.
CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS:
1. When thinking about the themes listed above, are there any songs from the musical that stand out to you as moments where you noticed those themes?
2. Les Misérables first premiered in 1980, but has been revived in theatres across the globe time and time again. In what ways do the musical’s public health messages continue to resonate with the public health issues of contemporary society? Do they offer any perspectives on how to respond to ongoing public health issues and inequities?
3. Illness and disease are two prominent public health themes in Les Misérables. How does thinking about these public health issues in the context of other public health themes (i.e. environmental health) help us to better conceptualize the root causes of illness and disease and advocate for equitable public health responses?
See and print the discussion guides below:
CONCLUSION
When you study public health, you begin to see public health themes all around you, from the movies you watch to the music you listen to and, yes, even the musicals you enjoy. We hope these guides change the way you engage with musicals, or at least give you a good chuckle and encourage you to absurdly blend your own nerdy interests in pursuit of creativity.
Feel free to share these guides with colleagues and friends or on social media. If you have any feedback, let us know here. If you want to contribute to the project and create more musical discussion guides, let us know here.
