Genre Counterpoints

This chapter offers three contemporary case studies of the British musical, which push the boundaries of what might normally be considered to belong to this art form and genre: Shockheaded Peter, Jerrry Springer: The Opera, and London Road. They do so by challenging conventional creation processes, theatrical and musical dramaturgies and idioms, performance aesthetics and topics. By contextualizing them within the theoretical discourse on ‘genre’, the author seeks to explore the dialogic nature of artwork and audience in relation to generic conventions and expectations, arguing that these are particularly relevant in the case of the musical. These case studies demonstrate the critical and even subversive potential that the musical—often unfairly dismissed as the most commercial and conventional form of music theatre—has.