"Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?"

What do Burr in Hamilton, Che in Evita, Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, Hermes in Hadestown and the Emcee in Cabaret all have in common? They all act as narrators in each musical in which they appear, employed to speak directly to the audience, comment on the action and offer an important external reflection.

From classic Broadway musicals to the 'British invasion' megamusicals and the biggest contemporary hits, the role of the narrator figure in musical theatre is varied, important and necessary to critically unpack.

Narrators in Musical Theatre provides scholarly insight into how to approach musicals that include narrator characters and/or have instances of character narration of events. Tracking the process historically these edited chapters offer an overview of the practice, considering the musical's connection with both classical theatre and the opera, as well as a comprehensive overview of the development of the form of the musical as we know it.

Individual chapters analyse specific types of narrator roles through key case studies drawn from both major canonical musical theatre works and lesser-known compositions. From investigating individual examples of the narrator/narration phenomenon and showing how specific theoretical and critical lenses can be vital for informing interpretation of musicals, readers will walk away with an understanding of the prevalence of narrators in musicals, along with tools for how to unpack meaning in shows that use the element of narration to present their story.

Published in Methuen Drama's Musical Theatre Critical Companions series this offers an accessible yet thorough study of key formal concept that is perfect for students, dramaturgs, writers and musical theatre fans alike.

Dean Adams is a Professor in the Department of Theatre and Senior Associate Dean of Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. From 1989 to 2011, he was the Artistic Director of the Connecticut Theater Festival in Simsbury, Connecticut. He directed and designed a touring production of Once Upon a Mattress, the first musical ever to tour the People's Republic of China (chronicled in the PBS documentary Beyond the Wall) in 1987.

As an author, he has penned book chapters for the Oxford Handbook series including the volume on musical theatre screen adaptations as well as one on Disney musicals, and he is contributing two chapters for the upcoming 50 Key Choreographers of Stage and Screen as well as a chapter for Stage Fright: Race, Gender, and Camp in Contemporary Horror of Stage and Screen entitled “Bat Boy and the Fear of the Other.”

Kelly I. Aliano is the Manager of Education Special Projects at The New York Historical and teaches in the English Department at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY. She is the author of Theatre of the Ridiculous: A Critical History, The Performance of Video Games, and Immersive Storytelling and Spectatorship in Theatre, Museums, and Video Games. She is also the co-author, along with Dongshin Chang, of Teaching Writing through Theatre: A Performative Approach to Pedagogy and co-editor, along with Adam Crowley of Video Games and Environmental Humanities: Playing to Save The World.

John Berst serves as Associate Professor of Professional Practice in the University of Miami Department of Theatre Arts, where he teaches several courses in performance, history, and musicianship. An active musical theatre scholar and historian, John has presented at several national and international conferences. In addition to his scholarship and teaching, John also continues to work professionally as an actor, director, and music director.

Nick Braae is Team Manager of Music and Performing Arts at the Waikato Institute of Technology in New Zealand. He has published extensively on the music of Queen, issues of style and genre in popular music, and the intersections between popular music analytical methodologies and musical theatre. Outside of research, Nick is an active as a musical director and keyboardist for local and national shows.

Roger Ellis is an Assistant Professor and head of movement for the MFA Acting program in the Department of Theatre at Northwestern University. Ellis' research investigates the interplay between sensation, perception, and response through post-psychophysical experimental theatre and cinema. As a director who moves fluidly between music theatre, devised performance, digital installation, and film, Ellis' work has been produced by the Cairo International Festival of Experimental Theatre, Steppenwolf LookOut Series, and the National Alliance for Musical Theatre Festival. Ellis' film work has screened at Cinequest, BronzeLens, African Diaspora International Film Festival, and the Gene Siskel Film Center.

Ellis has been interviewed for and quoted in articles in Howlround and Theatre Topics, and contributed an article on physical dramaturgy in Writing Adaptations and Translations for the Stage by Jacqueline Goldfinger and Allison Horsley. Ellis has presented on panels at Dance/USA, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs Association Conference, and Association for Theatre in Higher Education Conference.

Alison Morooney is a director and choreographer, and serves as an Assistant Professor of Music Theatre at Denison University in Granville, OH. She has contributed chapters to 50 Key Musical and 50 Key Choreographers for the Stage and Screen (upcoming). Select directorial and choreographic works: Legally Blonde (Duluth Playhouse), Pumpboys and Dinettes (Okoboji Summer Theatre), Spamalot and Life Could Be a Dream (Priscilla Beath Theatre).


Kellee Van Aken serves as a member of the theatre faculty and the Dean of the School of Visual and Performing Arts at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA. She has a long standing collaboration with visual artist and puppet maker Cheryl Capezzutti, writing, directing and creating works with puppets of all sizes for people of all ages. Their work has been performed regularly as part of Pittsburgh's Citiparks summer program and throughout the Allegheny County library system. She also works as an audio describer for City Theatre, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and the Pittsburgh Film Festival.


Addison Weissert is a choreographer, fight captain, dance captain, singer, dancer, and actress. She began studying dance and theatre in her home town of Centennial, Colorado with Magic Moments Inc. and Kaleidoscope Dance Company. She then continued on to pursue her undergraduate degree in psychology and theatre at Denison University, where she met her coauthor and mentor Alison Morooney. Some of her favorite projects include her work done at Denison participating in Macbeth, Spring Awakening, 9 to 5 and Invincible Summer; as well as her work done outside of Denison with Sasquatch Production's performance of Legally Blonde.