Reframing the Musical

Sarah Whitfield is a Senior Lecturer in Musical Theatre and course leader for the MA in Musical Theatre at the University of Wolverhampton, UK.

This critical and inclusive edited collection offers an overview of the musical in relation to issues of race, culture and identity. Bringing together contributions from Cultural, American and Theatre Studies for the first time, the chapters offer fresh perspectives on musical theatre history, calling for a radical and inclusive new approach. By questioning ideas about what the musical is about and who it for, this groundbreaking book retells the story of the musical, prioritising previously neglected voices to reshape our understanding of the form. Timely and engaging, this is required reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Musical Theatre. It offers an intersectional approach which will also be invaluable for theatre practitioners.

Responds to a rise in mainstream interest in musical theatre and its connections to race

Superman/Sidekick': White Storytellers and Black Lives in The Fortress of Solitude (2012)Hamilton (2015): Restaging a Revolution at the Expense of Black RevoltRebuilding Posterity: Savion Glover's Choreography of Shuffle Along, Or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 And All That Followed (2015)Black Conductors Make History on the Great 'White' Way: The Lost Labours of the Musical Director in Musical TheatreCreating a Theatrical Legacy: Examining Oscar Hammerstein II's British LegacyBeyond Rue Pigalle: Ada 'Bricktop' Smith as Muse, Mentor, and Maker of Transatlantic Musical Theatre'Dedicated to the Proposition...', Raising Cultural Consciousness in the Musical, Hair (1967)'Till We Find Our Place': Understanding The Lion King (1997) as a Vital Trope of Civic and Racial Presence in the New MillenniumThe Evolution of Musical Theatre in Spain Throughout the 20th and 21st CenturiesPhilippine Theatricality and the Aestheticization of Politics in David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's Here Lies Love'Am I Just Like You?' Musematic Relationships in Jeanine Tesori's Score for Fun Home (2015)'What about love?': Claiming and Re-Claiming LGBTQ+ Spaces in 21st Century Musical Theatre.