When we invited researchers and practitioners to apply for the new Musical Theatre Research Grants earlier this summer, we could not have anticipated the breadth of exciting proposals we would receive. Now, the V&A and Bunnett-Muir Musical Theatre Archive Trust (BMT) are delighted to announce the first cohort of Musical Theatre Fellows and Grant Recipients.
Generously funded by the Bunnett-Muir Musical Theatre Archive Trust, the fellowships and grants provide the opportunity to undertake research in the field of the musical on stage and screen with the Bunnett-Muir Musical Theatre Archive and the V&A’s Theatre and Performance Collections.
Congratulations to Dr. Samuel Yates, our inaugural Musical Theatre Fellow, and to Dr. Mollie Carlyle, Dr. Tony Lidington, Karen Nicholson and Dr. Charlotte Purkis, who have each been awarded research grants.
You can find out more about them and their research projects below. We look forward to welcoming them to the archives at V&A East Storehouse in the coming months, and to sharing their research through the V&A Blog throughout the year.
Dr. Samuel Yates: ‘Expanding Transnational Disability Aesthetics in Musical Theatre’
Dr. Samuel Yates, Assistant Professor of Theatre and Resident Dramaturg at Pennsylvania State University, is a deaf artist-scholar whose work explores disability aesthetics and labour in performance. Their forthcoming book, Cripping Broadway: Producing Disability in the American Musical, examines how disability operates as both a narrative and aesthetic force in commercial theatre. Yates will be investigating the interplay between American and British stage traditions, focusing on historical portrayals of disability in musicals and operettas. Drawing on materials from the V&A’s Theatre and Performance Collections and the Bunnett-Muir Musical Theatre Archive, they look forward to studying a range of historical and contemporary productions, from The Beauty Stone (1897) to The Little Big Things (2023). Their research traces disability’s representation as moral metaphor, spectacle, and social critique and at the V&A will encompass the musical Barnum (1980) and its depiction of ‘the oldest woman alive’ Joyce Heth and ‘small man in the world’ Tom Thumb.
Dr. Mollie Carlyle: ‘From Fo’c’sle to Footlights: Maritime Imaginaries in British Musical Theatre’
Dr. Mollie Carlyle is a maritime musicologist whose research explores sea shanties, seafaring song traditions, and their cultural afterlives. Her current project, From Fo’c’sle to Footlights: Maritime Imaginaries in British Musical Theatre, examines how the sea has been represented on the British musical stage from the early twentieth century to today. Drawing on the V&A and Bunnett-Muir Musical Theatre Archive, Carlyle will investigate how musicals have reflected and shaped national myths of the sea, engaging with themes of empire, migration, nostalgia, and identity. Her approach blends close musical and dramaturgical analysis with cultural history, situating maritime performance within wider debates in postcolonial and performance studies. Her forthcoming book, From Ship to Screen: The Cultural Legacy of Sea Shanties (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026), continues her interdisciplinary work connecting musicology, maritime history, and performance studies.
Dr. Tony Lidington: ‘Shuff & Byng’
Dr. Tony Lidington has been a practitioner and researcher of British popular entertainment for over four decades. His current project focuses on two icons of twentieth century drag performance: Douglas Byng and Rex Jameson (Mrs Shufflewick). At a time when public perceptions of drag are often shaped by television formats like RuPaul’s Drag Race, Lidington seeks to contextualise these earlier figures within a longer history of cross-dressing on stage. He is currently developing Shuff & Byng, an intimate revue, which will draw on archival materials in the V&A’s Theatre and Performance Collections and the Bunnett-Muir Musical Theatre Archive. Through this work, Lidington aims to explore questions of identity, gender, and performance heritage, which will be published in a paper, in addition to the performance.
Karen Nicholson: ‘From “Feeling Good” to Tommy and beyond: How did musical theatre shape rock and pop?’
Karen Nicholson is a costume professional and PhD researcher in the Department of Music at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research investigates the early connections between Anglo-American musical theatre (1960s–1980s) and the emerging rock and pop live music touring industry. Nicholson is looking forward to examining albums, programmes, production documents and photographs from the Bunnett-Muir Musical Theatre Archive and the V&A’s Theatre and Performance Collections. Her aim is to uncover how the aesthetics, systems, and performance practices of musical theatre shaped the development of global rock and pop tours. By tracing these theatrical influences, Nicholson seeks to challenge the stereotypical narratives of the rock and pop industry and highlight the often-overlooked debt that contemporary touring owes to the traditions of musical theatre.
Dr. Charlotte Purkis: ‘Mid-century modern musical theatre revues and the London Gate theatres’
Dr. Charlotte Purkis is a scholar of British musical theatre whose research explores the overlooked traditions of mid-century revue and the musical-theatrical heritage of the London Gate theatres. She is looking forward to examining how revue functioned both as popular entertainment and as a vehicle for experimentation with new writing. Her project draws on archival materials, including the Bunnett-Muir Musical Theatre Archive’s records of the 1984 King’s Head Theatre retrospective Meet Me at the Gate, which re-positioned mid-century revue within the broader history of British musical theatre. Alongside this, Purkis will engage with sources in the Theatre and Performance Collections to trace the form, content, and reception of revue shows from the 1930s to the 1950s. This work seeks to expand understanding of revue’s cultural significance, national identity, and enduring influence within British musical theatre history.
