Why did you become a Professor of Musical Theatre?

I love musicals. I was a Musical Director for many years, both in the UK and abroad. Conducting them is one of the best things in the world. But when you do the same show over and over again, it can become repetitive. The creative part is when you learn them, when you are discovering something new. I wanted to maintain that spark, so I went back to university to keep learning. I realised that writing about musicals is just as exciting as performing them.

Researching musical theatre turned into a passion: after my MA I stayed at the University of Exeter to obtain a PhD, and in 2012 I became the first Professor of Musical Theatre at the University of Winchester.

What does a Professor of Musical Theatre do?

I study the form. A musical can take the audience on a greater emotional journey than straight plays can: music accesses deeper emotions that words alone can’t reach. No one knows exactly what works on the stage, maybe that’s why there are so many shows that close early. By analysing old and new musicals, I hope to give the current and future generations of writers and performers some tools to understand the art form. If you don’t understand the form, you can’t move forward. And musical theatre must evolve to to stay current and keep speaking to new audiences.

What are great examples of musicals that did evolve?

It’s hard to choose, there are so many good shows that I’ve seen in the 35 years I’ve been going to the theatre. Most of the Sondheim musicals improved how we look at storytelling in musical theatre. Shows like Little Shop of Horrors and Urinetown are beautifully written and self-referential at the same time – they reference musical theatre history and popular music and film in ways that are joyful and exciting. And a show like Spring Awakening is a great example of how the form is moving away from the integrated musical. Song and lyrics are not doing the same work, but are complementing each other.

The interesting thing is: they are all American musicals.

How about British musicals?

Most people think about the West End and the big shows that are happening there when they mention British musicals. But most of the shows that have been developed in or for the West End in the last decades have not brought the producers what they hoped for. Apart from Matilda, there hasn’t been a big British success, so most of the new shows are now imported from the US. The British entertainment industry is taking notice and slowly but surely things are improving. For now, the industry in general is way too conservative. For new musicals, they still prefer the style that Rodgers and Hammerstein mastered. That is not helpful if you want to appeal to a current audience: new writing should reflect today’s world.

How can your work help to change that?

My research focusses on musicals that were made after 1970. I analyse the script, the score, the reaction of the audiences. How were they written? How was the form influenced by what happened in society? I look at how musicals have functioned and how they still do, so creatives and producers can learn important lessons from history and build towards a sustainable future.