The impetus behind this collection is the recognition that musical theater plays an important part in young people’s lives. Paying attention to how children experience musical theater opens up new understandings of mu- sical theater and children’s culture. The intersection of childhood cultural studies and musical theater studies is a new, albeit growing, area of re- search. Musical theater studies, itself a relatively young feld, has produced historical accounts told through the lens of feminism, social history, Afri- can American studies, and even religion, but no sustained study that privi- leges the child has appeared, despite the abundance of musicals for children and musicals about them. 1 The reasons for the scholarly neglect are historical and cultural. Histor- ically, both children’s literature and musical theater have been viewed as inferior artistic genres. Gender bias lies behind much of the prejudice, for children’s literature and musical theater are both associated with the femi- nine. As Stacy Wolf, a contributor to this collection, has written, “musical theatre has always been the terrain of women and girls,” and the tastes of women, girls, and children have historically been devalued. 2 Implicit in this bias is the belief that children are incapable of distinguishing good art from bad art. Further, musicals written primarily for children to perform are considered an inferior category of musical theater, seen as childish, local, ephemeral, amateurish, and artistically suspect. Children’s participation in musical theater would seem more appropriate for sociological or educa- tional studies than aesthetic and artistic analysis. 3 However, the educa- tional scholarship about the impact of musical theater on children tends to be anecdotal and offers little measurable data to justify the inclusion of mu- sical theater in the school curriculum beyond the obvious general benefts typically ascribed to arts education. 4 To paraphrase Peter Hunt’s discussion of children’s literature, if “children” commonly connotes immaturity, and “musical theater” commonly connotes something light and frivolous, as it did for most of its history, then it is no wonder that children’s musical theater has been neglected. 5 Children’s engagement with musical theater has evolved and increased along with new technologies. Children once enjoyed playing their fa- vorite musicals on records, then CDs, and now MP3 players or the latest 1 Children, childhood, and musical theater An introduction James Leve and Donelle Ruwe