Amy & After Dark: Our Roman Empire is Dorcas Two Shots

Not ready to say goodbye to Western month yet? Good! Neither are we! It's the last week of our cast takeover and we’re lucky enough to have a cheeky fifth Thursday – which means it's time for Amy & After Dark! These are the late-night episodes where we get cosy and yap about all the things that don't fit into our regular podcast schedule.

At the behest of Amy, our holidaying host, we tucked into some popcorn and s'mores with all the table manners of a band of backwoodsmen and sat down to watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. This 1954 technicolour Western (directed by Stanley Donen, with music and lyrics by Gene de Paul and Johnny Mercer, and starring Howard Keel, Jane Powell and, crucially, Julie Newmar as our dear Dorcas) is an Academy Award–winning smash hit from the golden age of Hollywood studio musicals.

For some of us, it's a classic comfort watch and for others it was a brand new experience but, bless our beautiful hides, boy do we have a lot to say about it! In this episode we chat about everything from barn raising dance battles, to the cultural and political climate of 1950s USA, to the colonial impulses at the heart of Hollywood’s fascination with Ancient Rome.


MENTIONS


🎬 FILM: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954); Raise Your Voice (2004); High School Musical (2006); Show Boat (1951); Desperate Search (1952); Lovely to Look At (1952); Ride, Vaquero! (1953); Calamity Jane (1953); Braveheart (1995)

🎭 THEATRE: Seussical the Musical; The Book of Mormon; Mamma Mia!; Cats; Stomp; Hadestown; Six

📺 TELEVISION: Ru Paul’s Drag Race/"The Rusical"

📚 LITERATURE: “The Sobbin’ Women”, Stephen Vincent Benét; Parallel Lives, “Life of Romulus”, Plutarch; Ab Urbe Condita, Titus Livy; Ars Amatoria, Ovid

🎓 SCHOLARSHIP: “Two Hundred Years of Changes to Native Peoples of Western Oregon”, David Lewis (   • Oregon History 101 - "Two Hundred Years of...  ); “The Australian Convict Prostitute Romance: Narrating Social and Sexual Justice for ‘Damned Whores’”, Hsu-Ming Teo; “Ancient Allusions and Modern Anxieties in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)”, Christopher M. McDonough; “Livy’s Sabine Women and the Ideal of Concordia”, Robert Brown; “Hunks, History, and Homophobia: Masculinity and Politics in ‘Braveheart’ and ‘Edward II’”, Sid Ray; 100 Film Musicals, Douglas Pye & Jim Hillier

🏛️: ON-CALL CLASSICIST/ARTIST: Gemma Neall (🎨 IG:   / gememberthat  )


LINKS


📖 BOTM: Seven Brides for Beau McBride by Amy Barry: https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/b...

🎵 Our theme music is by Mass Wisteria. Stream their single SAME OLD here: https://tr.ee/Mn6oTQ2AOW


🐎 Our Socials:

INSTAGRAM:   / amyandpodcast  
FACEBOOK:   / 1828076371339381  
TIKTOK:   / amyandpodcast  

🤠 Where to find Amy:

Amy Matthews on IG:   / amymatthewsauthor  
Amy Barry on IG:   / amybarryauthor  
FACEBOOK:   / dramytmatthewsauthor  
WEBSITE: https://amymatthewsauthor.com/

Thank you so much for watching! 💞