‘I used to shut my eyes and think of England’: The Lord Chamberlain versus the Broadway Musical, 1924-68

The Lord Chamberlain’s Papers at the British Library contain scripts, reports and extensive correspondence on theatre works produced on the British stage during the period of censorship. This article considers previously overlooked documents related to a swathe of works from the so-called golden age of the Broadway musical, from the 1920s to the end of censorship in 1968, to reveal class-based responses to American popular musical culture in Britain during a period of intense social change. Case studies on works such as Anything Goes (1935) and West Side Story (1958) reveal changing attitudes towards sex, religion, royalty, artists and the aristocracy.