Forgotten stars of the screen!

Forgotten stars of the screen!

An analysis of the lost and forgotten objects in the musical films of the twentieth century!

It’s a Sunday evening and I’ve just finished watching ‘The 100 Best Musicals’; a programme that seems to play very Christmas and that the TV God’s are deciding to show months early this year to cheer us slightly. It focuses on musicals that grace both stage and screen and the sheer enthusiasm that every person involved in the show has for musicals and musical theatre as a field just reminded me exactly how much I also love musicals and how much I miss them! I forget how enthusiastic a field theatre is and I love every part of it! So what could be better than meshing together this love for musicals and my current postgrad degree?

This is an introductory blog post to a new series I’m writing; part academic short essays/part blog posts that will analyse certain design history elements of musical films and look at the inspiration, planning and people behind them. It’s going towards Unit 3 of my MA –‘History as Public Practise’. A few other projects also make up this module, including research I am conducting for the Theatre and Performance department at the V&A for an upcoming exhibition about musical theatre.

The series intends to focus on the aspects of the musical films that aren’t the singing and dancing and acting; rather, the physical objects and costumes and sets and props that often get forgotten about, or are perhaps lesser discussed. It will include some incredibly well-known musicals and other very obscure ones but will hopefully shine a light on the importance of the interdisciplinary nature of Design History.

Look out for the first post coming soon!

C x