School musicals: collaborating with the drama department

It's easy to assume the appeal of getting involved in a musical, forgetting that singing and dancing on stage lies far outside the comfort zone of most teenagers, and for some represents the seventh circle of hell. But musical theatre has the power to bring a cast of disparate children together in a truly joyous enterprise and is thus one of the most valuable undertakings in the life of a school.

A successful foray into musical theatre relies significantly on effective collaboration between music and drama departments, ideally going well beyond a simple division of labour. My school stages at least one musical a year, often more. This year, revelling in live audiences and the lifting of singing restrictions, we staged six across our Junior and Senior schools. This sounds excessive, but the first key to engaging pupils with musical theatre is simply to make it a staple of the calendar. Normalising the act of singing and dancing on a stage should happen as early and as often as possible.