Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan
Book cover

Cultural Identity in British Musical Theatre, 1890–1939

Knowing One’s Place

  • Book
  • © 2018

Overview

Authors:
  1. Ben Macpherson

    1. School of Media and Performing Arts, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Represents the first in-depth study of over forty works of British musical comedy (1890–1939) using the original play-texts
  • Considers the impact of late-Victorian and Edwardian musical comedy on popular cultural ideas of ‘Britishness’
  • Offers a revisionary reading of the relationships between nationhood, race, gender and Empire on the musical stage

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in British Musical Theatre (PSBMT)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xv
    Download chapter PDF

  2. The British Musical in Seven Stories

    • Ben Macpherson
    Pages 1-28

  3. Domestic and Personal Identities

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 29-29
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Nation: Modernity and Mythology

      • Ben Macpherson
      Pages 31-61

    3. Femininity: Cinderellas and Caretakers

      • Ben Macpherson
      Pages 63-90

    4. Manliness: Domesticity and Defence

      • Ben Macpherson
      Pages 91-117

  4. Imperial and Ideological Identities

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 119-119
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Empire: Ornamentalism and Orientalism

      • Ben Macpherson
      Pages 121-153

    3. Conflict: Continuity and Change

      • Ben Macpherson
      Pages 155-180

    4. Peace: Nostalgia and Nationhood

      • Ben Macpherson
      Pages 181-208

    5. The English Musical in Many Stories

      • Ben Macpherson
      Pages 209-214

  5. Back Matter

    Pages 215-245
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This book examines the performance of ‘Britishness’ on the musical stage. Covering a tumultuous period in British history, it offers a fresh look at the vitality and centrality of the musical stage, as a global phenomenon in late-Victorian popular culture and beyond. Through a re-examination of over fifty archival play-scripts, the book comprises seven interconnected stories told in two parts. Part One focuses on domestic and personal identities of ‘Britishness’, and how implicit anxieties and contradictions of nationhood, class and gender were staged as part of the popular cultural condition. Broadening in scope, Part Two offers a revisionary reading of Empire and Otherness on the musical stage, and concludes with a consideration of the Great War and the interwar period, as musical theatre performed a nostalgia for a particular kind of ‘Britishness’, reflecting the anxieties of a nation in decline.

Reviews

“A masterly analysis of the various aesthetic forms and the changing social, political and ethical concerns of musical theatre from the last years of the Victorian era to the start of WWII, the book provides a lucid explication of the interrelated nature of popular entertainment and its sociopolitical contexts. It is likely to become required reading for students and scholars of the British musical and of social history.” (Robert Gordon, Professor of Drama, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK)

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Media and Performing Arts, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom

    Ben Macpherson

About the author

​Ben Macpherson is Senior Lecturer in Musical Theatre in the School of Media and Performing Arts at the University of Portsmouth, UK. His publications include Voice Studies: Critical Approaches to Process, Performance and Experience (co-edited with Konstantinos Thomaidis, 2015) and he has written widely on both voice studies and British identity in musical theatre.

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation