Original Cast Recordings: Musical theatre and/as sonic heritage – an AHRC network report

This article offers a summary report on discussions, approaches, findings and themes arising from the ‘Original Cast Recordings: Musical theatre and/as sonic heritage’ research network – an eighteen-month project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) (United Kingdom). After outlining the centrality of the musical theatre albums to the history of the form and popular culture at large, the article brings together two objectives of the network through three thematic discussions. First, it considers the complexity of definition – what do we mean by ‘original cast recording’ (OCR)? What are the ramifications of different taxonomic parameters? Second, it presents a synthesis of various approaches to the analysis of musical theatre on record, elucidating the complexities and potential in albums as fragments, a synecdoche for the live event, a pedagogic tool and an artefact in both media archaeology and the musicological analysis of historically informed practice. Further, it briefly outlines the state of play with respect to archival access to musical theatre archival recordings at several institutions in the United States and the United Kingdom, examining barriers and potentials for access to enable further and future study of their sonic heritage. It concludes by offering reflections on three future areas of research activity: a project designed to increase access to multiple musical theatre sonic archives and reduce duplication of materials; the need to study musical theatre fan communities and cast album collecting practices in more depth; and the rich potential for an oral history of artists, performers, music producers and engineers that are involved in creating the ‘sound souvenirs’ of OCRs.