Innovative Musicals

OVID-19 has had on theatre as we know it. We’ll focus on musicals that were seen as innovative, even revolutionary, in their original productions and explore the ways in which they’ve evolved over time through adaptation and revival. They include Shuffle Along , Oklahoma! , West Side Story , Cabaret , Hair , A Chorus Line , The Wiz , Bring in da Noise , Bring in da Funk , The Lion King , Hedwig and the Angry Inch , Passing Strange , The Scottsboro Boys , Fun Home , Hamilton , and more. We’ll consider how musicals in revival have to be reinvented, rethought, reimagined, even rewritten to be relevant to new audiences. Finally, we’ll discuss the musical as a global phenomenon, the possibility for intercultural engagement within musical narratives, and how musical theatre and film find new expression and distribution through changing media technologies including social media.