Musical Theatre

Our musical theatre research helps demonstrate that even popular forms of so-called ‘light’ entertainment can engage in difficult societal conversations around race, religion, gender, sexuality, politics, class and the idea of community and society at large.

We engage with any form that articulates music with theatre but, most often, we focus on the musicals produced on Broadway and in London's West End. Our research is not limited to analysing shows, but also looks at historical, social, economic and educational contexts underpinning and stemming from them.

We also consider performance practices and technical concerns, which link to a multi-million pound industry. We find new ways to illuminate how musical theatre works to suggest how it can remain meaningful for audiences, performers and industries.

The University is the founding home of the Studies in Musical Theatre journal – which is still edited here – and the Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies. We also regularly host British Musical Theatre Research Institute meetings.

Our research covers the following topics

British musical theatre
Musical theatre in a global context
The business of musical theatre
Musical theatre audiences
Musical theatre and voice
Musical theatre and race
Musical theatre and dance

Methods and facilities

We use a range of research methods stemming from humanities models, including historical and contextual research, sociological approaches and economic understanding. Practice-led research is also becoming increasingly relevant within the discipline, and features in some of our research work in this area.

Our staff have expertise in performance, performance history and popular culture, and the links we have between practice, industry and research, come from more than 15 years of featuring musical theatre in our undergraduate curriculum. We're accommodated in the specialist White Swan Building rehearsal and performance studios, which often play a role in our research.

Partnerships and funders

Partnerships include the Victoria and Albert Museum, to access their extensive musical theatre collections, and we are members of Musical Theatre Network — the national network for new musical theatre. We also regularly work with creative from this network in our curriculum. Recent funders of our work include the American Embassy.

Recent project and publication highlights include

Macpherson, B. (2023) "The voice I like to live in': an interview with impressionist Christina Bianco", Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies, 8(1), 79-97.
Rumsey, P. E., and Martincich, D. (Eds.) (Accepted/In press) "Dance in Musical Theatre: A History of the Body in Movement", Bloomsbury Publishing Company.
Rumsey, P. E. (2023) "Embodied Nostalgia: Early Twentieth Century Social Dance and the Choreographing of Musical Theatre" (1st ed.) (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies). Routledge.
Rumsey, P. E. (Accepted/In press) "Oklahoma! A musical for its time. In Cambridge Companion to Rodgers and Hammerstein", Cambridge University Press.
Macpherson, B. (2021) "The somaesthetic in-between: six statements on vocality, listening and embodiment" In C. Kapadocha (Ed.), Somatic Voices in Performance Research and Beyond (1st ed., pp. 212-226). (Routledge Voice Studies). Routledge.
This project explores lip synching in mainstream television, ventriloquism and talent shows, voice in cinema, impersonation and imitation.