What factors influence the characterisation of pivotal female roles in musical theatre?

Musical Theatre lags behind theatre, film and television when it comes to female characterisation, particularly in key supporting roles. Literature outlines how the predominance of male creatives in the field drives the presentation of story and characterisation in new and reimagined musicals, and female characters are assessed by whether they are ‘strong’ because of the storylines they must face. However, the frequently limited depth of characterisation is less well documented.
I explore the making of pivotal female roles in Musical Theatre with the creation of a new musical adaptation of Emmuska Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905), grounding the formation of the pivotal female role in her characterisation from the original book (Orczy, 1905). I employ autoethnography, journaling the choices I made/make during the adaptation process, and reflecting on how my own experiences influenced my decisions. I consider the way paradigms create perceptions for both audience members and creatives, generating heuristics that shape how we create and receive musical theatre. Focusing on the common character-type, the Love Interest, I posit how reintroducing the ancient Greek term, Deuteragonist, for pivotal characters could encourage creatives to consider Love Interest to be one function of a well-developed character instead of their primary purpose.