From Fo'c'sle to Footlights: New Grant-Funded Research on British Musical Theatre

I’m delighted to share the news that I’ve been awarded a £1,000 grant from the V&A and the Bunnett-Muir Musical Theatre Archive Trust as part of their recently launched scheme supporting research into British musical theatre. This funding will support the development of a new article, entitled From Fo’c’sle to Footlights: Maritime Imaginaries in British Musical Theatre.

This generous support is part of the V&A's ongoing commitment to nurturing scholarship in British musical theatre, a field that has seen growing critical interest in recent years. The grant programme, administered through the Theatre & Performance department at the V&A, is aimed at researchers and practitioners exploring underexamined aspects of the British musical tradition. I am deeply honoured to be selected alongside an inspiring cohort of researchers and thrilled to contribute new work to this evolving conversation.

The Project: From Fo’c’sle to Footlights

The article I’ll be developing explores how the sailor and the sea have been portrayed in British musical theatre from the Edwardian era to the present day. It will chart a course through a variety of works – from comic operas and wartime revues to West End musicals and fringe productions – to examine how the maritime world has served as a recurring site of both nostalgia and national identity. Despite the long-standing presence of sailors in the British theatrical imagination, Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore being perhaps the most iconic example, there has been surprisingly little scholarly work on the role of maritime culture in British musical theatre. This article will investigate why the figure of the sailor continues to resurface in musical narratives, often embodying both the romance of the sea and the realities of service, departure and return. By looking closely at musical and narrative tropes, costume and choreography, and historical context, the article will examine how these performances reflect changing attitudes toward empire, masculinity, class and mobility. It will also consider how seafaring characters and settings have shaped the soundscapes of British musicals – from the shanty-influenced choruses of earlier works to more recent pastiche and reinvention.

Why Maritime Musical Theatre?

As someone with a longstanding interest in the intersections of performance, national identity and cultural memory, this project represents a chance to bring together several strands of my research. The sea – and those who sailed it – have long occupied a prominent place in British cultural mythology. Musical theatre, with its capacity for sentimentality, satire and spectacle, has offered a fertile space in which these themes are both reinforced and contested. This research also speaks to broader questions about how popular theatre reflects and refracts ideas of Britishness. The sailor figure, often caught between duty and desire, tradition and transformation, serves as a potent symbol of national narratives – especially in times of conflict, uncertainty or change. By analysing performances that place the sailor on stage, I hope to shed light on the performative construction of maritime identity and its role in the British musical tradition.

Looking Ahead

The grant will support archival research at the V&A's new research and storage centre in Stratford, London, enabling me to examine materials such as scores, libretti, production photographs and prompt books. I’ll also be looking at lesser-known works, many of which have not received sustained scholarly attention, in order to build a more complete picture of how the maritime imaginary has circulated through musical theatre. I’m particularly excited to return to primary sources – including the rich holdings of the V&A’s Theatre & Performance Archive – to uncover how past productions negotiated the aesthetics of the sea on stage. From rigging and ropework to sailor’s hornpipes and shanty choruses, these performances crafted vivid maritime worlds that have left enduring marks on British stage history.

My sincere thanks go to the V&A and the Bunnett-Muir Musical Theatre Archive Trust for their generous support and for their commitment to fostering new research in this field. It’s heartening to see institutions investing in the scholarship of musical theatre – a form that continues to captivate audiences while offering critical insight into cultural life. I’ll be sharing updates on the project as it develops, including some initial findings and reflections from the archive. If you’re working on related themes or have suggestions of productions or resources I should explore, I’d love to hear from you.

Stay tuned for more!

Dr. Mollie Carlyle