The shortest runs can have the longest legacies: for too long, scholarship surrounding British musical theatre has coalesced around the biggest names, ignoring important works that have not had the critical engagement they deserve.
Through academic interrogation and industry insight, this unique collection of essays recognizes these works, shining a light on their creative achievements and legacies. With each chapter focusing on a different significant musical, a selection of shows spanning 2010s are analysed and the development and evolution of the genre is explored.
Touching on key, hit shows such as SIX, Matilda, Everybody's Talking About Jamie, The Grinning Man and Bend it Like Beckham, each chapter discusses different theatrical elements, from dramaturgy and musicology to reception, and also includes an interview with a practitioner related to each musical, providing in-depth understanding and invaluable practical and industry knowledge.
Identifying the intersectionality between industry insight and academic analysis, Contemporary British Musicals: ‘Out of the Darkness’ challenges the narrative that the British musical is dead : creating a new historiography of the British musical that celebrates the work being created, while providing a manifesto for the future.
Edited by:
Clare Chandler,
Gus Gowland
Imprint: Methuen Drama
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 244mm,
Width: 169mm,
ISBN: 9781350268050
ISBN 10: 1350268054
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 08 February 2024
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Foreword – Kate Marlais Foreword – Tim Sutton List of Contributors List of Images Introduction Chapter 1 - Bros Abroad: Masculinities in Transition and Homosocial Bonding in Dougal Irvine’s Departure Lounge - Broderick Chow Dougal Irvine Interview Chapter 2 - ‘The Smell of Rebellion’ and ‘The Stench of Revolt’: The Carnivalesque Dramaturgy of Matilda the Musical from Page to Stage - Stephanie Lim Ellen Kane Interview Chapter 3 - ‘Glitching’ of gender and temporality in Lift – Jozey Grae Perfect Pitch Interview - Andy Barnes, Wendy Barnes Chapter 4 - Bend it Like Beckham: The Musical: Embodying British Identities - Kelsey Blair Preeya Kalidas Interview Chapter 5 - Flowers for Mrs Harris: Covid-19, Women’s Work, and the Musical’s ‘some kind of bliss’- Sarah K. Whitfield Rachel Wagstaff & Richard Taylor Interview Chapter 6 - ‘You’re him and he is you’: Identification with the Disabled ‘Freak’ in The Grinning Man - Ellen Armstrong Toby Olié Interview Chapter 7 - “Something Precious You Don’t Simply Give Away”: Intersections of Love and Queer Expression in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie - Hannah Marie Robbins Rob Hastie Interview Chapter 8 - ‘One of a kind, no category’: Coding Race, Gender, and Excess in SIX - Aviva Neff Josh Bird Interview Chapter 9 - My Left Right Foot: The Musical – Judith Drake Noisemaker Interview Chapter 10 - ‘As if Gathered in a Verbatim Fashion’: The (Mis)Use of Documentary Markers in Chris Bush and Matt Winkworth’s The Assassination of Katie Hopkins - Cyrielle Garson Lucy Osborne Interview Conclusion
Gus Gowland is an award-winning musical theatre writer and composer (Pieces of String - The Stage Debut Award 2018) and is also Post Graduate Musical Theatre Co-ordinator at Leeds Conservatoire. Gus has previously worked at University of Lincoln, University Centre Shrewsbury and University of Wolverhampton, all UK, where he obtained his PhD in 2020. His research interests include LGBTQ+ representation in musical theatre and contemporary British musical theatre. Clare Chandler is a musical theatre practitioner and researcher. As a lecturer Clare has worked at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, Edge Hill University and the University of Wolverhampton. She is currently a senior lecturer in Musical Theatre at the University of Lincoln, UK. Clare's research interests include the impact of technology on the development of contemporary musical theatre, feminism and musical theatre, and pedagogical practice and performer training. She directed the national premiere of Angry Birds the Musical by Dougal Irvine in 2018.
