ABSTRACT
Although labels such as opera and musical are still applied to theatre for sung rather than spoken communication, the distinction between various performance forms has become increasingly blurred in recent years — both for new writing and in the way older works are presented. Indeed many productions of drama texts now involve so much music and choreographed movement that any division of our discussion into drama, dance, musicals and opera could be regarded as irrelevant. Nevertheless, while there is a undoubtedly a large area where cross-fertilisation between forms is developing an integrated ‘total theatre’, there are still considerable differences between the lighting contribution made to mainstream drama, conventional opera and the various manifestations of what we usually refer to as the ‘the musical’.
