Class in British Musical Theatre
Description
This short book gives an overview of the relationship between class and musical theatre in Britain, and how the class system plays out through industry practices.
Beginning with an analysis of the 2001 London production of My Fair Lady as an example of class representation, Class in British Musical Theatre argues how productions are marketed to particular groups, how audience segmentation practices feed into a classed discourse, and how all this shapes how musical theatre as a genre is received. It takes in contemporary musicals such as Everybody's Talking About Jamie and Matilda and looks back to Oh, What a Lovely War!.
Published in the Topics in Musical Theatre series, this short book gives the reader new ways of seeing the aesthetically and politically capacious category of class in musical theatre from a fresh perspective.
Table of Contents
Hook: My Fair Lady and the British Class System
Concepts of Class
Brief History of the Relationship Between Theatre, Music and Social Class
Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: Class Consciousness and the Musical
Theme: Shifting Class Consciousness in 20th/21st Centuries
Lit Review: Look Up and Laugh, Les Misérables, Billy Elliot
Case Study: Oh What a Lovely War!
Chapter 2: Real and Fictional Spaces
Theme: Space and Place
Lit Review: The Phantom of the Opera, Blood Brothers, Everybody's Talking About Jamie
Case Study: Standing at the Sky's Edge
Chapter 3: Class Struggle and Form
Theme: Formal Experiments
Lit Review: Misty, Poet in Da Corner, Grimeboy
Case Study: Pied Piper: A Hip Hop Family Musical
Conclusion
Mini Case Study: Matilda the Musical
Product details
| Published | 27 Nov 2025 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 112 |
| ISBN | 9781350496286 |
| Imprint | Methuen Drama |
| Series | Topics in Musical Theatre |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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