Home Courses Stage and Screen BA (Hons) Musical Theatre (Music)
Student performing on stage

Gain comprehensive musical theatre training specialising in music and voice

UCAS LogoUCAS Logo
W392
3 years Full Time
Bishop Otter Campus (Chichester)

37th

UK University

The Guardian University Guide 2023

7th

in the UK for teaching quality

The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2022

Top 10

for student satisfaction

Complete University Guide 2023

Join us at one of our Open Days!

Saturday 22 June  |  Saturday 12 October  |  Friday 1 November  |  Saturday 23 November

Saturday 22 June

Saturday 12 October

Friday 1 November

Saturday 23 November

Our next Open Day is in:

Day
Hour
Minute
Second

Overview

Study all aspects of musical theatre as you expand your musical talents and skills

Our BA (Hons) Musical Theatre (Music) degree is the only musical theatre course in the UK to place the voice, acting through song and song analysis at its core while also giving a substantial skills framework with the study of dance (ballet, tap and jazz), acting techniques and contextual modules through all three years.

Gain highly-practical musical theatre training with a focus on music and voice

You will receive traditional training in every aspect of musical theatre (singing, acting and dance) alongside a specialist focus on the practical, theoretical, and emotional analysis of the music of musical theatre.

You will build a substantial skills framework with the study of dance (ballet, tap, and jazz), acting techniques, as well as dedicated modules on the development of your musical and vocal abilities and understanding.

Perform in productions and industry showreels

With a high level of contact time, this course also includes opportunities to take part in the dedicated second- and third-year productions, study swing routes, perform in numerous concerts in a variety of venues and create an Industry Showreel with professional headshots.

Emotionally connect with performance materials

We use a central ‘Head, Hand, Heart’ model that promotes the importance of ‘understanding, doing and feeling’ in stage performance. This model will help you to enhance your future professional success and employability.

Forward thinking and socially engaged students develop their creativity, originality and excellence positioning them to realise sustainable futures in the Industry.

Spotlight accredited

Our Spotlight accreditation offers you discounted graduate membership to largest casting resource in the United Kingdom, inclusion in a dedicated ‘graduate’ section of their website, access to their dedicated one-to-one career advice sessions, and much more.

Spotlight logo

On this course you will:

  • Gain a comprehensive musical theatre training with specialist options in music and voice.
  • Highlight your musical strength through dedicated classes in acting through song, vocal studies, and music analysis.
  • Star in our industry showcase and perform throughout your degree
  • Learn from our expert and industry-active teaching staff, including star of stage and screen Meredith Braun.
  • Expand your professional network and career opportunities through our Spotlight accreditation

The Course

Develop specialist technical and performance skills across acting, dancing and singing

The Acting Through Song and Theatre Craft modules form the backbone of the course through all three years, as you explore the practical, theoretical, and emotional analysis of the music of musical theatre.

Acting Through Song

This module stretches throughout the course and allows you to strengthen your craft of creating a journey through song through both analysis and performance.

Through masterclasses and lectures, you will develop your understanding of text, music, acting and vocal choices and the emotional and physical journey of character.

Study areas include:

  • Vocal health and colour
  • One-to-one singing lessons
  • Acting through song
  • Emotional and physical development of character
  • Vocal masterclasses
  • Ensemble singing
  • Guitar and keyboard skills

Theatre Craft

Throughout your degree, you will explore approaches to both acting and dancing, as you widen your application of craft and technique and deepen your critical thinking.

All of your learning in this area will go towards the production of a final industry-standard showreel that you will use to kickstart you career.

Study areas include:

  • Meisner, Stanislavsky, Brecht acting techniques
  • Comedy and Physical Theatre
  • Show analysis
  • Audition technique
  • Audio/visual performance
  • Ballet, jazz, and tap
  • Body conditioning
This list is indicative and subject to future change.

Select a year

Acting Through Song

Through analysis and performance, this module allows you to discover and establish skills in creating a journey through song. Delivered via a combination of one-to-one lessons, lectures and masterclasses, you will explore text, music, acting, vocal choices and the emotional and physical journey of character. The module also includes repertoire classes, audition technique, vocal health and physiology and audio/visual recording.

Masterclass

This module develops your basic performance and communication skills and your sense of performance context. You will develop your repertoire, your understanding of style and your skill in preparing for audition or performance.

Musical Grammar

This module builds on the knowledge you have accrued on music grammar and deepens your understanding of key elements of musical structure.

You will continue to present and discuss your work, both individually and in groups – enhancing skills in teamwork and presentation and building confidence.

Musical Theatre History and Context

This module includes a thorough investigation of the key elements of musical theatre – song and lyrics, book and libretto, choreography, staging and the physical production and aims to develop the skills of reading, writing, critical thinking, research and oral communication that are fundamental to collaboration.

Professional Resilience

This module will explore a range of different strategies designed to offer support to the emerging arts practitioner and will introduce you to a number of different models of successful self-development.

Style and Genre

Lectures, analytical listening and set reading materials will take you on a chronological survey of the Western Art-Music tradition from its beginnings in ancient Greece, through the birth of polyphony, early opera, the works of Mozart and Beethoven, to the Tristan Prelude and the roots of modernism.

Throughout this process, you will examine the development of genres, musical structures, and compositional style.

Theatre Craft

This module allows you to establish and refine skills in the essential Musical Theatre dance disciplines of Ballet, Jazz and Tap and to explore distinct approaches to acting.

There is a strong emphasis on consolidating and enhancing technique, improving posture and proprioceptive awareness, and developing musicality and artistic qualities within movement. You will consider the importance of craft and technique but also the critical thinking at the heart of the creative process.

The Acting methods include Stanislavski, Brecht, Meisner, Comedy and Physical Theatre.

Acting Through Song 2

This module allows you to strengthen your craft of creating a journey through song through both analysis and performance.

You will assess the repertoire studied over the previous year and begin to explore more varied and challenging work under the direction of your individual vocal teacher and group tutors.

Through masterclasses and lectures, you will develop your understanding of text, music, acting and vocal choices and the emotional and physical journey of character.

Masterclass

This module continues to develop your performance and communication skills and your sense of performance context. You will develop your repertoire, your understanding of style and your skill in preparing for audition or performance.

Musicals On Screen

This module explores the diverse cultural, social and historical contexts in which the movie musical has developed and currently operates. In addition, you will focus on the exploration of different filmmaking techniques, technologies and creative methodologies, using real world movie musicals as examples.

Opera and Operetta

Available in two different delivery modes, this module can be followed as either a conventional weekly series of lectures during semester two, or as a week-long intensive culminating in a staged performance outside the semester period.

Learning is focused on examples drawn from 19th century opera forms, seeking to develop a lively sense of the evolving performance context, which came to be described as operetta.

Performance Anxiety

Examine the problem of performance anxiety and stage nerves and study the theoretical background and how to effectively deal with anxiety.

You will look at the performance itself and the surrounding physiological and psychological factors that lead to stage nerves during performance.

This module introduces a wide range of theories from relevant disciplines including cognitive behavioural therapy and neuro-linguistic programming.

Professional Resilience

This module will explore a range of different strategies designed to offer support to the emerging arts practitioner and will introduce you to a number of different models of successful self-development.

Self-Employment, Employment and Visualising Success

This module explores the local and national marketplace and will introduce you to a number of different models of successful positioning within it.

A successful career as a music professional needs to be informed, alongside musical and communication skills, by an understanding of the nature of self-employment in business.

This module will seek to develop this, and to encourage a confident approach to the world beyond university, enabling a tailored financial and business planning which encourages an awareness of local markets and circumstances.

The Musical Theatre Business

You will explore examples of different types of musical theatre performance and the function of a range of professional roles in commercial and publicly funded contexts.

Theatre Craft 2A & B

This module further develops your skills in the Musical Theatre dance disciplines of ballet, jazz and tap. Barre work and centre practice increase in complexity.

Jazz classes will follow the format of conditioning, stretching, and strengthening of the body and the vocabulary of steps in tap will build as you progress, as will the challenge in content and rhythm.

In addition, you will further explore approaches to acting, widening your application of craft and technique, and deepening your critical thinking.

Acting Through Song 3

This module allows you to refine your craft of creating a journey through song through more comprehensive analysis and proficient performance.

You will assess the repertoire studied over the previous years and begin to explore advanced work under the direction of your individual vocal teacher and group tutors.

Through masterclasses and lectures you will further develop your understanding of text, music, acting and vocal choices and the emotional and physical journey of character.

Business Project

This module is taken by Arts Management students and aims to develop competency in business planning and imaginative use of physical and creative resources.

Communicating Music Through Movement & Gesture

This module explores the opportunities that exist for enhanced communication within the formal performance context, using your own physical projection of self and personal narrative of intention.

Work will also be developed in a broader context, allowing a deeper understanding of the semiotics of movement – the kinesic variables which impact upon the viewer – and the generic codes that attach to the music you play.

Create Your Own Show (Personal Study)

This module allows you to select an area or areas of study of their choice, in singing, instrumental study, dance (including choreography), acting, comedy, magic, and to develop this over an extended period into a self-devised show.

This provides an opportunity to develop an individual repertoire, and to present a longer and more challenging programme of work centred around your individual skill set.

Introduction to Fundraising in the Arts

The module will consider the third-sector in relation to the other two sectors, the legal structures for non-profit organisations and regional variations in regulation, alongside the charity model in at least one other country.

Masterclass

This module develops your advanced performance and communication skills and your sense of performance context. You will develop your repertoire, your understanding of style and your skill in preparing for audition or performance.

Opera

This module takes a chronological approach to the study of the genre, beginning with the early Baroque and offering examples of differing musical styles up until the first half of the 20th century, with a particular focus on the late 18th to mid 19th centuries.

The relationship between narrative and the musical expression of dramatic tension will be explored.

Your lectures will make connections between the function of musical structure and form within individual works and the development of character and plot.

Personal Study (Recital)

This module sees you select an area of study in performance and develop it over an extended period.

For performers, this is an opportunity to present a longer and more challenging programme of work.

Personal Study (Written)

This module provides you with an opportunity to select an area of study of your choice, to research it and present your findings in written form, and to develop this over an extended period.

Professional Resilience

This module will explore a range of different strategies designed to offer support to the emerging arts practitioner and will introduce you to several different models of successful self-development.

Song Writing

This module brings together the practical and theoretical skills a composer needs for completing and presenting compositions. It gives you a forum to demonstrate the musical and lyric writing skills and techniques developed during the course and leads to projects preparing for effective public performance.

The MT Swing

This module gives you an insight to the role of a ‘swing’ within a musical theatre performance context. This is where you will be asked to learn all the parts of a particular production to be ready to fill any role.

You will develop an exploration of performance styles in practical work and a willingness to approach new and more complex learning strategies.

A more professional approach to rehearsal will be encouraged and you will keep a ‘swing bible’ (written log) of all information needed to effectively take part in the performance, in any given role.

Theatre Craft 3A & B

This module develops your skills in the Musical Theatre dance disciplines to create proficient performances.

You will investigate classical ballet performance and its important links to other dance styles. You will be able to use your musical experience to select music for appropriate routines – Waltz, Tango, Hornpipe etc., apply different varieties of music to jazz formats – Lyrical, Contemporary, Street etc, and develop your musical understanding within the tap genre of how to create different beats and rhythms within phrases.

You will further develop your approaches to acting with more advanced textual, physical, and dramaturgical analysis. Through study of Hagen and Practical Aesthetics you will deepen your critical thinking.

Lucy

BA (Hons) Musical Theatre (Music)
“This course is really helping me to grow in confidence as a performer. The lecturers are amazing at catering to everyone's specific needs and creating a very safe working environment where I'm not afraid to try out new things"

Teaching and Assessment

Feel the support of our expert and experienced staff

Our expert and experienced musical theatre practitioners get to know you as individual so you can feel more confident to develop your technical skills and explore your creative ideas in a supportive environment.

Typical study weeks include:

  • Performance technique classes
  • Supplemental training classes
  • Lectures
  • Seminars
  • Tutorials
  • Studio-based workshops
  • Application of practice classes

Outside of scheduled classes you will complete independent study including developing repertoire, researching texts, individual solo practise, completing individual or group tasks and working on your assignments.

Meet programme leader Meredith Braun

Meredith Braun

Senior Lecturer | Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Musical Theatre (Music) and MA Musical Theatre

As a Principal in Musical Theatre Meredith has been fortunate to have enjoyed an extensive national and international career, including roles in the West End as vocally diverse as:

  • Éponine in Les Misérables
  • Christine in The Phantom of the Opera
  • Lily in The Secret Garden
  • Belle in The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Experience

Discover industry-standard spaces and equipment to support you learning

Study Abroad

Explore the opportunity to study part of your course abroad

As a student at the University of Chichester, you can explore opportunities to study abroad during your studies as you enrich and broaden your educational experiences.

Students who have undertaken this in the past have found it to be an amazing experience to broaden their horizons, a great opportunity to meet new people, undertake further travelling and to immerse themselves within a new culture.

You will be fully supported throughout the process to help find the right destination institution for you and your course. We can take you through everything that you will need to consider, from visas to financial support, to help ensure that you can get the best out of your time studying abroad.

Careers

Prepare for a rewarding career within the performance industry

This BA (Hons) Musical Theatre (Music) degree will prepare you for your future career. You will have the opportunity to develop a broad range of skills to enhance your CV and your employability.

High-contact hours with industry experts, focus on performance skills and experience, and strong professional links with the sector help prepare you for your future career, as you develop a broad range of skills to enhance your CV and your employability.

As performers, alumni have gone into:

  • West End productions
  • Major touring productions throughout Europe
  • Pit band and musical direction regionally and in the West End
  • Major cruise ships including Disney
  • UK and International small-scale touring theatre
  • ​Film and TV in both the UK and US
  • Edinburgh Festival
  • Cabaret
  • Stage managers, arts managers and producers picking up contracts in the UK and around the world

Further Study

You could choose to continue your studies at postgraduate level.

Study options at the University of Chichester include:

  • MA Music Performance
  • MA Music Teaching
  • PGCE
  • PhD/MPhil

University of Chichester alumni who have completed a full undergraduate degree at the University will receive a 15% discount on their postgraduate fees.

Course Costs

Course Fees 2024/25

UK fee
£9,250
International fee
£15,840

For further details about fees, please see our Tuition Fees page.

For further details about international scholarships, please see our Scholarships page.

To find out about any additional costs on this course, please see our Additional Costs page.

Entry Requirements

Typical offers (individual offers may vary):

UCAS
104-120
tariff points from A levels or combination with AS / EPQ / BTEC/ Cambridge Technical.
BTEC
DDD-DMM
IB
28 points
IELTS
6.0
with no element lower than 5.5.

Auditions

You will need to demonstrate your ability in dance, acting and singing in a performance audition. Applicants with high levels of performance skills may be considered for a lower academic offer.

Interviews and Auditions

Auditions and interviews usually run from January until March/April.

We aim to offer you a genuine dialogue during your application process. This gives you a sense of worth and achievement from the audition process itself; a sense of ownership for you during the process and, ultimately, is an opportunity for us to get a clear understanding of who you are, what you need, and how we can best prepare you for your degree.

We judge you on your skills, your potential, and your personality, not your background.

Booking Your Audition

If you are invited to audition you will receive an email asking you to book your audition date on ChiView. If you are unsuccessful we will email you to let you know.

You can usually choose between multiple days on ChiView at one time. If none of the current dates suit you please contact admissions@chi.ac.uk.

Once you have booked your audition, you will be able to access the audition guidance document on ChiView – just log into the ChiView portal, click on ‘Events schedule’ and then ‘View details’ to access the document, which will tell you how to prepare for your audition, what to expect on the day, etc.

If your situation changes and you can no longer attend your audition date, you should cancel your booking in ChiView by visiting your ‘Event Schedule’ and clicking ‘Cancel Attendance’. You also need to inform the admissions team by emailing admissions@chi.ac.uk, so we can send you a new audition invitation.

Using ChiView 

Sometimes if you are viewing your ChiView portal on a phone you will not be able to see the page correctly. If this happens you should try again on another device.

You may need to clear your browser history. 

If you are still unable to see the ‘View details’ button, please check that you have successfully booked your audition by clicking ‘respond to interview invitation’.

If all else fails please email admissions@chi.ac.uk with your query and applicant number.

Your Audition Day

Once you have booked your audition, please log into the ChiView portal, click on ‘Events schedule’ and then ‘View details’ to access the audition guidance document, which will tell you (amongst other things) what will happen at the audition itself, a basic itinerary of the whole day, parking information, etc.

In brief, there should be an introductory talk by the department, the chance to meet lecturers and other applicants, as well as your opportunity to perform for the audition panel.

After Your Audition

After your audition, the panel will discuss your performance and pass our decision onto the admissions team, who will update UCAS and email you with the outcome, whatever it might be.

  • We make bespoke offers: Your offer is specifically for you. If we offer less than your predicted grades, this will reflect the potential and quality of your audition and we’d like to take a bit of pressure off of you heading into your exams.
  • We don’t do unconditional offers: Unless you already have your grades (you are a mature student), we will always insist on certain grade achievements because we want you to succeed in all aspects of your academic life including your A levels, BTEC, etc.
  • If you do not get the grades you wanted: Don’t panic. You received an offer because you were good enough for the department at audition. On Results Day, just ring us on the clearing hotline, so we can discuss things with you.
  • We may offer you a different course: We may offer you a place on an alternative, relevant course within the department, rather than offer you the course you applied for. If this is the case, we will state this in your offer letter/email and update your course on UCAS. We will explain our reasoning, which will revolve around placing you on the most appropriate course where we think you will thrive.

FAQs

Frequently asked questions

How do I apply?

Click the ‘Apply now’ button to go to relevant UCAS page.

What are UCAS tariff points?

Many qualifications have a UCAS Tariff value. The score depends on the qualification, and the grade you achieved.

How do I know what my UCAS tariff points are?

Head to the UCAS Tariff Points web page where you can find a tariff points calculator that can tell you how much your qualification and grades are worth.

Our address

For visits

I’m looking for