Professor Millie Taylor

Biography

Millie Taylor is Professor of Musical Theatre. She worked as a freelance musical director and for almost twenty years toured Britain and Europe with a variety of musicals including West Side Story, Rocky Horror Show, Little Shop of Horrors and Sweeney Todd. During her freelance years she completed an MA in Theatre Practice and a PhD in Drama and Music, both at Exeter University. Not surprisingly her research interests centre on the interactions of the performing arts, particularly music and theatre. Her books include: Musical Theatre, Realism and Entertainment, British Musical Theatre Since 1950, and British Pantomime Performance.

Areas of expertise

• British Pantomime
• Musical Theatre History, Theory and Dramaturgy
• Theatre Music

Recent appearances on Radio 4's Front Row on Musical Theatre, BBC Breakfast on Pantomime - to view click Pantomime.

Publications

Programme Notes

• 'Playing with Meaning in the Opera House' Programme for Carmen Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 2018.

Books

• Taylor, Millie. Theatre Music and Sound at the RSC: Macbeth to Matilda. (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
• Gordon, Robert, Jubin, Olaf and Taylor, Millie (eds), British Musical Theatre Since 1950 (London: Bloomsbury Methuen, 2016).
• Taylor, Millie and Symonds, Dominic. Studying Musical Theatre (London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).
• Taylor, Millie. Musical Theatre, Realism and Entertainment Interdisciplinary Studies in Opera Series (Basingstoke: Ashgate, 2012).
• Taylor, Millie. Singing for Musicals: A Practical Guide (Marlborough: The Crowood Press, 2008).
• Taylor, Millie. British Pantomime Performance (Bristol and Chicago: Intellect Books, 2007). 

Edited collections

• Symonds, Dominic and Taylor, Millie (eds), Gestures of Music Theater: The Performativity of Song and Dance (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014).
• Taylor, Millie (ed.). 'If I Sing: Voice and Excess' Special Issue of Studies in Musical Theatre 6/1, 2012.

Chapters

• ‘Title of Chapter’ in by Jessica Sternfeld and Elizabeth L. Wollman (eds), The Routledge Companion to the American Stage Musical (London and New York: Routledge, forthcoming).

• ‘Lionel Bart: British Vernacular Musical Theatre’ in Robert Gordon and Olaf Jubin (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the British Musical (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 483-506.

• 'Singing and Dancing Ourselves: The Politics of the Ensemble in A Chorus Line (1975)' in Symonds, D and Taylor, M (eds), Gestures of Music Theatre: The Performativity of Song and Dance (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 276-292.
• 'Sweeney Todd: From Melodrama to Musical Tragedy' in R. Gordon (ed.), Oxford Handbook to Sondheim (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 335-349
• 'From Screen to Stage: Dirty Dancing Live' in Yannis Tzioumakis and Siân Lincoln (eds), The Time of Our Lives: Dirty Dancing and Popular Culture (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2013), pp. 281-296.
• 'Continuity and Transformation in Twentieth Century Pantomime' in J. Davis (ed.), Victorian Pantomime: A Collection of Critical Essays (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp. 185-200.
• 'Layers of Representation: Instability in the characterization of Jenny in Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny by Brecht and Weill' in G.Kayner and L. Ben Zvi (eds), Bertolt Brecht: Performance and Philosophy (Tel Aviv: Assaph Book Series, 2005), pp. 159-176.

Articles

• 'Experiencing Live Musical Theatre Performance: La Cage Aux Folles and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.' Popular Entertainment Studies 1/1 (2010), pp. 44-58.
• 'Drawing attention to the significant: exploring the functions of music in The Overcoat (1998)' Studies in Musical Theatre 2/3 (2009), pp. 261-281.
• 'Integration and distance in musical theatre: the case of Sweeney Todd' Contemporary Theatre Review Vol 19/1 (2009), pp. 47-60
• '"Don't Dream It, Be It": exploring signification, empathy and mimesis in relation to The Rocky Horror Show' Studies in Musical Theatre 1/1 (2007), pp. 57-71
• 'Exploring the Grain: The sound of the voice in Bruce Nauman's Raw Materials', Studies in Theatre and Performance 26/3 (2006), pp. 289-96.
• 'Schrödinger's Research: When does practice as research occur?' South African Theatre Journal Vol 19 (2005) pp. 183-90
• 'Playing with Distance in Pantoland' New Theatre Quarterly XXI: 4 (2005), pp. 331-39

Other articles

• 'Editorial' Studies in Musical Theatre [Special Issue If I Sing: Voice and Excess] 6/1 (2012). pp. 3-7.
• 'Oh No it isn't: Audience Participation and Community Identity', TRANS Internet-Zeitschrift fuer Kulturwissenschaften 15 (2004)
• 'Collaboration or conflict: Music and Lyrics by Brecht, Weill and Eisler' Studies in Theatre and Performance Vol 23: 2 (2003), pp. 117-124.

Reviews

• ‘What the eye sees, what the ear hears: a review of Laurie Anderson by Rose Lee Goldberg’ Contemporary Theatre Review Vol 14:1, (2004)

Keynote lectures

• ‘Integration and Intertextuality: The provocation of Into the Hoods.’ The Role of the Choreographer in the Stage and Screen Musical Society for Dance Research/DANSOX. St Hilda’s College, Oxford University. 28th November 2015.
• ‘Title of Keynote’ Song, Stage and Screen XI. City University New York, 27th June 2016.

Inaugural lecture

• Humanity, Community and Excess: 'Feel the flow' in musical theatre performance. University of Winchester, 29 April 2013.

Public Talks

• 'Follies: Sondheim and the concepts of time and memory' Royal National Theatre Education Day December 2017.

Presentations at conferences/symposia

• ‘Exploring the functions of music at the Royal Shakespeare Company’ Presenting the Theatrical Past IFTR, Stockholm University. 13-17th June 2016.
• 'Macbeth to Matilda: Musical collaborations at the Royal Shakespeare Company.' Theatre and Stratification, IFTR World Congress, Warwick University, 28 July 1 Aug 2014.
• 'Macbeth to Matilda: Musical collaborations at the Royal Shakespeare Company.' The Art of Collaboration in Musical Theatre, Song, Stage and Screen IX, Sheridan College, Toronto Canada, 24 - 26 June 2014.
• 'Innovation and Tradition in Musical Theatre Singing' Tradition, Innovation, Community IFTR Annual Conference Osaka, August 7 12, 2011.
• 'Innovation through creative collaboration: Fingerprint by The Shout' Song, Stage and Screen VI, University of Missouri, Kansas City, 20 23 June, 2011.
• 'The We Will Rock You Factor: Cognitive responses to the performance of well-known songs' presented to the Musical Theatre working group at Cultures of Modernity IFTR Annual Conference Munich 26 31 July, 2010.
• 'Liveness in Musical Theatre' presented to Popular Entertainment Working Group at Silent Voices, Hidden Lives IFTR Annual Conference Lisbon 13 18 July 2009
• 'Hybrid Voices of Music Theatre: Deep Blue, Bombay Dreams and London Road' Performance Culture Industry PSI Annual Conference Leeds, 27 June 1 July 2012
• 'Singing and Dancing Ourselves: The politics of the ensemble in A Chorus Line' Song Stage and Screen 7: Groningen 2 5 July 2012.
• 'Using theory and practice in the creation of original work' 'Putiing it Together': Teaching musical Theatre in UK Higher Education Palatine Conference, Bath Spa University 27 28 March 2009
• 'Exploring identities in a hybrid music theatre performance: Fingerprint by The Shout' Music on Stage Rose Bruford College 18 19 October 2008
• 'A British Tar is a Soaring Soul' Music and the Melodramatic Aesthetic Nottingham University 5 7 September 2008
• 'Exploring identities in a hybrid music theatre performance: Fingerprint by The Shout' Re-constructing Asian-ness(es) in the Global Age Seoul 14 19 July 2008
• 'A British Tar is a Soaring Soul' West End Musical Theatre 1880-1930 Goldsmiths College 10 11 April 2008
• 'Illusions of Realism in the Musical' Song, Stage, Screen II Leeds University 23 25 March 2007
• 'Money Matters: Economic Issues in Contemporary Pantomime' Victorian Pantomime Warwick University March 17th 2007
• 'Exploring evaluative, empathetic and representation responses to the sound world of The Rocky Horror Show' at Song, Stage and Screen, Portsmouth University, May 2006
• 'Integration and Distance in the works of Stephen Sondheim' Sondheim conference, Goldsmith's College, University of London, Nov 2005
• 'Exploring the Grain: The sound of the voice in performance' International Conference on Arts and Humanities Hawaii Jan 2005
• 'What's Behind Them? Distance and Reflexivity in British Pantomime' International Conference on Arts and Humanities Hawaii Jan 2005
• 'Musicality and Verbal Excess in Pantomime Comedy' Laughing Matters Portsmouth April 2005
• 'Exploring the hierarchies in contemporary music theatre works: The Overcoat by the Clod Ensemble' Soundings: Innovations in, and reflections on, Music Theatre Rose Bruford College, London. May 2003
• 'Oh no it isn't: Audience participation and community identity' Signs, Texts, Cultures: Conviviality from a Semiotic point of view Conference in Vienna November 2003.
• '"Evil" as a Musical Theatrical Convention'. Signs, Music, Society Institute of Socio-Semiotic Research Vienna, March 1999.
• 'Singing and Dancing Ourselves: The politics of the ensemble in A Chorus Line' Mediating Performance IFTR Annual Conference, Santiago Chile 22 28 July 2012
• 'Reviewing the Situation : Exploring the Roots/Routes of British Musical Theatre Through the Work of Lionel Bart' Re-Routing Performance IFTR Annual Conference, Barcelona Spain, 22-26 July 2013
• Song, Stage and Screen V: Interdisciplinary Approaches to 'Voice' in Music, Theatre and Film 3rd- 5th September 2010.