Dr Adam Rush

Biography

Adam Rush is Lecturer in Musical Theatre. He has a BA in Drama from the University of Lincoln (first-class), an MA in Theatre and Performance from Queen Mary, University of London, and a PhD from the University of Lincoln (entitled Recycled Culture: The Significance of Intertextuality in Twenty-First Century Musical Theatre).

Prior to joining the University of Winchester, Adam taught on the BA Drama programme at the University of Lincoln, where he established the Postgraduate Network in Musical Theatre (PGMT). He was also on the editorial board of Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts and won the Vitae 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) heat at the University of Lincoln in 2015. Adam is currently preparing a monograph based upon his doctoral research, several chapters/articles, and a co-authored textbook exploring the transatlantic history of British and American Musical Theatre (with colleagues Millie Taylor and Matt Lockitt).

Areas of expertise

• Adaptation and Intertextuality
• 21st Century Musical Theatre
• British and American Musical Theatre, since 1970
• Contemporary British Theatre?

Publications

Articles

• Oh, What a Beautiful Mormon: Tracing Rodgers and Hammerstein in The Book of Mormon. Studies in Musical Theatre, (2017), 11(1) 39-50 (DOI: 10.1386/smt.11.1.39_1).

Book Chapters ?

• The "Phan"-dom of the Opera: Gothic Fan Cultures and Intertextual Otherness. In: Kelly Jones, Benjamin Poore and Rob Dean (eds.) (2018) Contemporary Gothic Drama: Attraction, Consummation and Consumption on the Modern British Stage. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 139-158.
• It’s Just a Jump to the Past!: Subverting Intertextual Otherness in The Rocky Horror Show. In: Luis Campos and Fiona Jane Schopf (eds.) (2016) Music on Stage: Volume II. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 120-135.

Book Reviews

• Review of Gordon, R. and Jubin, O. (eds.) (2017) The Oxford Handbook of the British Musical in Studies in Musical Theatre, 11(2) (DOI: 10.1386/smt.11.2.219_5).
• Review of Kenrick, J. (2017) Musical Theatre: A History in Studies in Theatre and Performance, 37(2) (https://doi.org/10.1080/14682761.2017.1401302).
• Review of Cramer, L. (2013) Creating Musical Theatre: Conversations with Broadway Directors and Choreographers in Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts, 2015, 9(1) 77-81.
• Review of Wright, A. (2012) West End Broadway: The Golden Age of the American Musical in London in Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts, 2013, 7(2) 92-95. 

Conference Papers

2019

• Changing My Major: Adapting Fun Home from Bechdel to Broadway at Song, Stage and Screen XIV, University of Leeds, June 2019. 

2018

• Hamilton An American Musical: The Very Model of a Modern Major (British) Megamusical at the Faculty of Arts Research Seminar, University of Winchester, December 2018.
• #YouWillBeFound: Marketing the ‘Other’ in Dear Evan Hansen at Song, Stage and Screen XIII, University of California, Los Angeles, May 2018.

2017

• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Memoralising Freddie Mercury in We Will Rock You at Song, Stage and Screen XII, Guildford School of Acting, June 2017.

?2016?

• ?that you might find in a musical: Reclaiming Intertextual Traditions in Urinetown at Song, Stage and Screen XI, City of New York University (CUNY), June 2016.
• ?Everything’s Coming Up Twitter: Social Media as Research Tool and ‘Text’ at Putting It Together: Investigating Sources for Musical Theatre Research, University of Sheffield, May 2016.
• No Place like Home: Intertextual Thresholds and the National Mythmaking Qualities of The Wizard of Oz at TaPRA 2016 Postgraduate Symposium, University of Sheffield, February 2016.

2015

• ?Lavatories, Loo Roll and Love Ballads: Risking the Traditional Model in Urinetown at the TaPRA 2015 Annual Conference, University of Worchester, September 2015.
• So Lauren Bacall Me: Musical Theatre and the Fluidity of Iconicity at Song, Stage and Screen X: ‘The Star System in Musical Theatre and Film’, Regents University, London, June 2015.
• Oh, What a Beautiful Mormon: Tracing Rodgers and Hammerstein within The Book of Mormon at British Association for American Studies (BAAS) Annual Conference, University of Newcastle, April 2015.
• Mormonism in 140 Characters: Marketing Liveness in Cyberspace (and back again) at University of Lincoln 2015 Postgraduate Conference, University of Lincoln, March 2015.
• Epic, Easy, for Everyone: Public Engagement and the National Theatre (with Nicholas Holden) at University of Lincoln 2015 Postgraduate Conference, University of Lincoln, March 2015.
• Mormonism in 140 Characters: Marketing Liveness in Cyberspace (and back again) at TaPRA 2015 Postgraduate Symposium, University of Manchester, February 2015.

2014

• ?‘It’s Just a Jump to the Past’: Subverting Intertextual Otherness in The Rocky Horror Show at the 5th International Music on Stage Conference, Rose Bruford College, October 2014.
• The Mormon Guide to Twitter: Musicals, Marketing and Fan Culture Madness at EMUA Research Student Annual Conference, University of Leicester, September 2014.
• The Wizard and I: The Wicked Politics of The Wizard of Oz at University of Lincoln 2014 Postgraduate Conference, University of Lincoln, March 2014. ?