Beyond the Classroom: Revolution and the Modern Musical

In our ‘Beyond the Classroom’ interview series, we speak to our Liberal Arts module convenors to reveal the deeper purpose and vision behind their academic modules. In our first entry to the series, we spoke to Dr William Rupp, Head of Liberal Arts, whose module Do you hear the people sing? Revolution and the Modern Musical debuted this past year. Following its huge popularity with Liberal Arts students as an optional module, it is now open for students from across the University. He discusses the reasoning behind creating a module on revolutions and musicals, and some of the key lessons he hopes students can take away from his class.

How did the idea for this module come about?

The inspiration behind this module actually came from our Liberal Arts students! I am already the convenor for our Revolution! module (which teaches the complex theories of revolution and revolutionary events, in addition to how artistic and material culture contributes to our understanding of them) and every year in class, I was consistently being asked why we weren’t discussing the musical Les Miserables.

Our students had a good point, as so many musicals and operas are set either during a documented historical revolution or a fictional one that has been based on real life events - think Hamilton, Hairspray, Wicked, as well as Les Miserables…the list goes on. So, during a staff meeting, where we were discussing refreshing the Liberal Arts curriculum and introducing more optional module offerings for external students, I half-jokingly commented that we should start a module about musicals.

To my surprise, Bryan Brazeau (who was then Head of Liberal Arts) and the other academics reacted with great enthusiasm to this suggestion, so I quickly set to work creating a syllabus and researching various musicals to include as case studies.

Although I had a wide range of musicals to choose from for this module, for the module’s first iteration I eventually settled on four as points for discussion and analysis - Les Miserables, Hamilton, Urinetown and the opera The Marriage of Figaro - as I wanted the selected musicals to present a wide range of issues and discussion points for students to explore and debate in class.

I am not a music theorist.Therefore, it was not in my interest to duplicate something that our University’s Theatre and Performance Studies department already does so well. Rather, I do think about revolutions in an academic context, and it was important for me to help students understand the cultural impact of musical theatre and why so many popular musicals choose to have revolution as a theme.

What do students learn on this module, and why is it so important?

Firstly, students will examine why so many musicals incorporate revolution as a major theme.

There are a few different reasons for this. However, one point we often start with is the reason why audiences go to watch musicals in the first place, which is to experience entertainment from the emotional journey on which the musical’s storyline and musical numbers will take you. In the same vein, revolutions are historical events that also contain a great range of human emotions, such as what is evoked from death, grief, loss, violence, and resilience. Therefore, combining both revolutions and musicals makes sense given that, through this lens, they go hand in hand.

Although it can seem silly to think about musicals in an academic context, it should not be sneered at.Not only are musicals part of a major industry (the US’s Broadway shows, which are predominantly made up of musicals, generated approximately $1.54 billion in ticket sales for the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons) but they are also an essential part of theatre, which we know has had influence on societal politics, culture, and social factors since as far back as Ancient Greece.

The theatre space that musicals exist in is also important due to it often providing a safe haven to outsiders and ostracised groups (think the LGBTQIA+ and black communities as just some examples). Because of this, musicals have long been a vehicle for social criticism and challenging political norms, particularly during time periods where other types of media are experiencing heavy censorship.

I think it is important to mention that if you do decide to take this module, you won’t be just spending all your time watching musicals. Instead, we will be discussing a lot of political and emotionally driven topics such as: how musicals have impacted the public perception of revolutions, how revolutions are presented in musicals, and the motives of the musicals’ creators behind presenting them in such a way.

Who would you recommend this module to?

As this module has so far only been open to Liberal Arts students, I would actually be interested in coming back to this question in about a year's time. As students from across Warwick can now take the module (with their home department’s permission, of course) I am looking forward to seeing who will be drawn to this subject and why.

It has been really fascinating to see how our current Liberal Arts students have responded to this module so far. For the final assessment this year, they were tasked with creating a pitch for a musical that incorporated a historical revolution and some of the creative concepts they were able to come up with were incredible.They created musicals based on political and social revolutions but also technological and conceptual ones as well… including a fascinating idea based on the fabric jute.

What are some of the key lessons and important learnings that you would like students to take away from this module?

One of my students joked that I had ‘ruined musicals’ for them as now they can’t help but meticulously analyse every aspect whilst watching them. That being said, my hope is that students will actually gain a new appreciation of the musical art form and some of the underlying messages beneath the glitz and glamour of the shows you see on Broadway and the West End.

I would also wish for students to be able to recognise their biases when analysing political art and engage with debates on whether art can be separated from the artist. There is something really significant about how art can move people and make them have an emotional reaction to an event (such as the 1828 student uprisings explored in Les Misérables) that happened hundreds of years ago, which is why there is value in critically analysing these experiences in a module like Revolution and the Modern Musical.

If you’re interested in taking Revolution and the Modern Musical, please email liberalarts@warwick.ac.uk for more information.