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Music Theatre is an umbrella term refering to many different ways of creating a piece of theatre using sound made from body, voice, a musical instrument and even your general surroundings, often in an unconventional and untraditional way. Kurt Weill wrote that Music Theatre can often be 'fringe or experemental opera'. He also said that Music Theatre is a 'performance' of a 'simple, strong story.' These stories are musically driven or which has essential musical elements.

As Music Theatre is always evolving, its performance is frequently raw, controversial, experimental and original. However, many existing and more easily defined genres of theatre come under the Music Theatre Umbrella. These include Opera, Musical Theatre, Pantomime, Shakespeare, Artuadian and Brechtian theatre.

Though commonly the word ‘Theatre’ is used to describe a structured performance, when combined with the word ‘Music’ the boundaries become less defined. Therefore anything that uses music with the intentions of providing entertainment could be classed as Music Theatre, and 'indeed anything that brings theatre to the concert platform'. (Bawtree, 1991: Back cover.)

In these broad terms the genre could also included online channels, beat boxing, performance art, actors playing instruments and even musical artists such as Lady GaGa and David Bowie.

References

The New Music Theater

Bawtree, Michael, 1991, The New Singing Theatre: A Charter for the Music Theatre Movement, New York and Bristol, The Oxford University Press and The Bristol Press.

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