No description available.

This thesis is a consideration of the theatre masque in Britain from the appearance of Dramatick Opera in 1690, to the end of the eighteenth century. Its central hypothesis is that those years which saw the greatest number of masques presented, also saw attempts to create an English operatic tradition, and that the subsequent brief popularity of the masque was a consequence of this activity. The study falls into three sections. The first part, 'definitions' considers the application of the word 'masque', in both primary and secondary discussions and studies; it also considers the problem of <i>Acis and Galatea</i> as a case study in theatrical terminology in the eighteenth century. In the second section, 'Directions', there are three main chapters (ii, iv and vi), with two interludes (iii and v). Sections ii, iv and vi each take one of the quantitively identified groups of masques (those of 1701, 1715-16 and 1733-4), and discuss their relation to the operatic and theatrical activity which was taking place at the time. Each of the interludes contains a short consideration of the genre which was an off-shoot of the masques previously discussed. Thus the masque burlesque follows the classical masque, and the pantomine masque follows the pastoral masque. The third and final part is a study of the masque of <i>Alfred</i>, of its dramatic, political and musical characteristics, of those who worked on it and those who watched it, of those who altered it and those who revived it.

No description available.

The purpose of the research reported here is to explore the part played by children in musical theatre. It aims to do this on two levels. It presents, for the first time, an historical analysis of involvement of children in theatre from its earliest beginnings to the current date. It is clear from this analysis that the role children played in the evolution of theatre has been both substantial and influential, with evidence of a number of recurring themes. Children have invariably made strong contributions in terms of music, dance and spectacle, and have been especially prominent in musical comedy. Playwrights have exploited precocity for comedic purposes, innocence to deliver difficult political messages in a way that is deemed acceptable by theatre audiences, and youth, recognising the emotional leverage to be obtained by appealing to more primitive instincts, notably sentimentality and, more contentiously, prurience. Every age has had its child prodigies and it is they who tend to make the headlines. However the influence of educators and entrepreneurs, artistically and commercially, is often underestimated. Although figures such as Wescott, Henslowe and Harris have been recognised by historians, some of the more recent architects of musical theatre, like Noreen Bush, are largely unheard of outside the theatre community. Theatrical dynasties seem to have been important in protecting and in training young performers, in keeping them `grounded', and in helping to manage the transition to adult performer, although the `edge' enjoyed by the children of theatre families was to some extent eroded by the growth of public/private education provision in the 20th century which improved access and started to `level the playing field'. Secondly, the research investigates how well aspiring young performers are served by the UK education system. Although much is written about the education system in general, what has been written specifically about the performing arts appears to focus only on component parts. Relatively little seems to have been done to assess the system in its entirety, taking into account both state and private provision, let alone the part played by the `third sector' in the form of youth theatre and theatre schools. The research reported here considers the contributions made by the various elements of the performing arts eco-system and the coherence and cohesiveness of the system of the whole. The research goes on to consider the end product1, and the context in which musical theatre operates.

No description available.

The twenty-first century musical is dominated by high-profile adaptations and the recycling of popular texts in a wider trend Graham Allen terms ‘cultural regurgitation’. From Wicked (2003) and Billy Elliot the Musical (2005) to Jersey Boys (2005) and The Book of Mormon (2011), the commercial musical stage is a prominent site of high-profile intertextuality in that it draws from ‘innumerable centres of culture’ to fuel an evening’s entertainment. Given the proliferation of such intertextuality, however, this trend has received little critical attention beyond the detailing of these musicals as ‘safe-bet’ entertainments which attract an audience through the recycling of familiar elements. The primary aim of this thesis is therefore to fill an important gap within existing scholarship by investigating how intertextual references function and operate within contemporary musical theatre. In differentiating the various styles of intertextual reference evidenced within the form, this thesis argues that most twenty-first century musicals either adapt a specific text, capitalise on nostalgia, fashion a bricolage of references or metatheatricalise perceptions of musical theatre as an art form. In doing so, it put forwards the claim that musical theatre invites intertextuality as a diverse layering of textual elements in and of itself. Not only is musical theatre an inherently intertextual form, but it ultimately requires intertextuality to reflect the recycled nature of popular culture more broadly.

This thesis explores how the changing masculinities of the 21st century have affected how young men connect to musical theatre as a genre that has been stereotypically seen as gay. The investigation is first located in the theoretical framework of masculinities, utilising the concepts of the male sex role, hegemonic masculinities and inclusive masculinity to chart how the performance of the male gender has changed over the past century. The project then adopts an empirical approach to a group of 161 men and 25 women, establishing a methodological framework for correlating sexual orientation with attitudes towards musical theatre. There is a further honing of this methodology through the adoption of Jenifer Toksvig's 'The Fairytale Moment' exercise, which identifies how each participant connects to narrative through a core emotional drive. Finally, this data is tested through three case studies of how individual participants connect to 'Les Misérables', 'Wicked' and 'Soho Cinders', concluding that the emotional content of musical theatre is now as desirable to straight men as it is to women and LGBT men.