How Musicals Work

THEATRST 109

Spring 2025

THEATRST 109 How Musicals Work

Professor Ryan Donovan

Tuesdays, Thursdays 11:45 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Page 106

Do you love musicals? In this course, we go behind the scenes to study what makes them tick. We study how the business of Broadway works and speak with industry experts from fields like casting, marketing, and publicity. We’ll start with a deep dive into the architecture of iconic musicals before studying staging and design and more. We examine the show and the business in tandem to understand HOW MUSICALS WORK.
What makes a musical a musical? How do musicals create alchemy in song and dance? What is the relationship between content, form, and context? These questions will guide our study of musical theater dramaturgy and its evolution. We will cover everything from contemporary musicals to Sondheim, rock operas, revues, and Rodgers & Hammerstein. By the end of the course, students will become experts at recognizing various forms of musical theatre, gain an understanding of the pivotal relationship between historical context and dramatic form, and be able to chart how innovations often become conventions. Our focus is musical theater on the page and the stage as we explore how musicals work.

Notes

Previously numbered THEATRST 209 and titled "Dramatic Forms of Musical Theater" or "How Musicals Work." This course can fulfill a Gateway credit or an Area 2 credit for the Theater Studies major, but not both. It satisfies a theory course in the Musical Theater Minor.

Photo by Florian Wehde shows the busy night light New York City's Broadway and Times Square area
Curriculum Codes
  • ALP
Typically Offered
Fall and/or Spring