Musical theatre is an important part of LGBTQ+ culture, but how effectively do our musicals represent lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex and asexual creatives and audience members in all their fabulous glory? Dr James Lovelock, curator of www.queermusicals.com, is joined by special guests from across the musical theatre industry to think about how these productions are creating spaces that centre queerness and represent LGBTQ+ people of different genders, races and lived experiences. Join us to celebrate how our queer identites are challenging conventions and creating a bold new future for musical theatre! Series 1-3 of this podcast were funded by the University of Wolverhampton. Series 4 of this podcast is funded by the British Academy Early Career Researchers’ Network Seed Fund as part of a project on ’Queer gain in queer-infused musical theatre practices’, and is supported by Sheffield Hallam University
Episodes
Aug 12, 2025
Aug 12, 2025
44 min
Welcome to Represent, the queer musical theatre podcast.
My name is Dr James Lovelock and I'm an academic and a huge musical theatre fan, exploring the representation of all things queer in the musical theatre industry. My guests today are the fabulous writer and director Robyn Grant and her astoundingly versatile collaborator Allie Dart, who is currently appearing in the comedy about spies at the Noel Coward Theatre. Robyn and Allie are the Victoria Wood and Julie Walters of our time, appearing together in the hit musical parodies Unfortunate, The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch and Wolverine, among many other productions. Today we discuss the art of collaboration, creating inspiring rehearsal rooms and Robyn's current project, Medusa.
Links
Robyn Grant's Instagram and website
Allie Dart's Instagram
Dr James Lovelock's Instagram
New Musicals
Unfortunate the untold story of Ursula the Sea Witch - a musical parody Trailer Instagram Spotify Apple Music
Shipton: A New British Folk Musical Instagram MT Spotlights
Tickets
Buy tickets for Unfortunate the untold story of Ursula the Sea Witch - a musical parody at the Lowry Theatre in December
Find out more about The Comedy About Spies.
Aug 5, 2025
Aug 5, 2025
52 min
Welcome to Represent, the queer musical theatre podcast.
My name is Dr. James Lovelock and I'm an academic and a huge musical theatre fan, exploring the representation of all things queer in the musical theatre industry.
My guest today is the iconic River Medway, star of RuPaul's Drag Race season three in the UK, and more recently a leading lady as Ariel in the outrageous musical parody Unfortunate, the untold story of Ursula the Sea Witch. We discuss River's unique pathway to representing their authentic self in musical theatre and talk about their upcoming role as Jem in Here and Now, the Steps musical.
Links
River Medway's Instagram
Represent - the queer musicals podcast Instagram
New musicals
Unfortunate the untold story of Ursula the Sea Witch - a musical parody Trailer Instagram Spotify Apple Music
House of Cleopatra - Instagram Spotify (original version) Apple Music (original version)
Here and Now - The Steps Musical - Trailer Website Instagram
Tickets
See River in the UK tour of Here and Now - The Steps Musical
See Unfortunate the untold story of Ursula the Sea Witch - a musical parody at the Lowry Theatre in December
Jul 29, 2025
Jul 29, 2025
52 min
Welcome to Represent, the queer musical theatre podcast. My name is Dr James Lovelock, and I’m an academic and a huge musical theatre fan exploring the representation of all things queer in the musical theatre industry.
My guest today is the extraordinary actor and writer Lauryn Redding. Lauryn appeared as Nikki in the gorgeous West End musical Standing At The Sky’s Edge, and was the first writer and performer to open a show at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester after the pandemic with the wonderfully titled Bloody Elle. We discuss Lauryn’s current project Jack, based on the diaries of Anne Lister, and recent television role as Mel in Smoggie Queens, as well as exploring our hopes for female queer representation in musical theatre in the future.
Links
Lauryn Redding - Instagram Tiktok
Dr James Lovelock - Instagram
Represent the queer musical theatre podcast - Instagram
Lauryn performs 'Open Up Your Door' from Standing at the Sky's Edge
Standing at the Sky's Edge album and script
Bloody Elle album, script and 2021 trailer
Smoggie Queens on BBC iPlayer
Signal Musicals YouTube channel
I Kissed A Girl on BBC iPlayer
The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs script and trailer
Jul 22, 2025
Jul 22, 2025
55 min
Welcome to Represent, the queer musical theatre podcast. My name is Dr James Lovelock, and I’m an academic and a huge musical theatre fan exploring the representation of all things queer in the musical theatre industry.
My guests today are the extraordinary writer Chris Bush and the fabulous actor and workshop queen Beth Hinton-Lever. Beth recently appeared in Chris’ play Otherland at the Almeida Theatre, which follows the post break-up relationship between Harry, who has recently come out as a trans woman, and Jo, who is preparing to be a mother. We talk about trans, queer and disability representation as well as exploring Chris’ beautiful musical Standing At The Sky’s Edge, Beth’s West End debut in Hadestown and an epic community musical called The Doncastrian Chalk Circle.
Links
Chris Bush's instagram
Beth Hinton-Lever's instagram
James Lovelock's instagram
Standing at the Sky's Edge website
Buy the Standing at the Sky's Edge script from Nick Hern Books
'As the Dawn Breaks' and 'Tonight the Streets Are Ours' from Standing At The Sky's Edge (press preview)
Listen to the Standing at the Sky's Edge soundtrack on Spotify or Apple Music
Otherland website
Buy the Otherland script from Nick Hern Books
The Doncastrian Chalk Circle website
Other new LGBTQ+ theatre / musical theatre discussed in this episode
After the Act website
Oregon Shakespeare Festival 2018 production of Oklahoma! - website
One of Them Ones website
One of Them Ones script
Aug 20, 2024
Aug 20, 2024
51 min
In this week's episode from Podstream Studios in New York, Dr James Lovelock talks to actors Evan Kinnane and Ben Jackson Walker about LGBTQ+ representation on Broadway and beyond. We talk about Evan's role as Marc Hall in the 2020 production of The Louder We Get at Theatre Calgary in Canada, and about Ben's current role as Romeo in & Juliet as well as our hopes and dreams for queer musical theatre in the future.
Follow Evan on Instagram here.
Follow Ben on Instagram here.
Follow James on Instagram here.
'This Dance Is For You' from The Louder We Get
This episode was recorded at Podstream Studio in New York and engineered by Desta Wondirad (thanks Desta!)
Aug 12, 2024
Aug 12, 2024
32 min
In this episode, Dr James Lovelock is joined by Oliver Houser, the writer of XY and She Reached For Heaven. We talk about intersex representation in musical theatre, and the writing and development process of XY as a queer musical.
Oliver's website is here and you can follow him on Instagram here.
You can follow James on instagram here.
This episode was recorded at Podstream Studio in New York and engineered by Desta Wondirad (thanks Desta!)
Aug 5, 2024
Aug 5, 2024
52 min
This week's episode comes from New York's Podstream Studios, where James Lovelock chats with the amazing L Morgan Lee about her recent performance as Nina-Mae in A Complicated Woman at Goodspeed Musicals and her involvement in workshopping the new musical version of The Danish Girl.
You can find out more about L Morgan on her website and her instagram page.
James Lovelock's instagram page is here.
This episode was recorded at Podstream Studio in New York and engineered by Desta Wondirad (thanks Desta!)
Represent! The queermusicals.com podcast
Musical theatre is an important part of LGBTQ+ culture, but how effectively do our musicals represent lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex and asexual creatives and audience members in all their fabulous glory? Dr James Lovelock, writer and curator of www.queermusicals.com, is joined by special guests from Legally Blonde, Rent, But I’m A Cheerleader, Daddy, The Normal Heart and Interstate: A New Musical to think about how these productions are creating spaces that centre queerness and represent LGBTQ+ people of different genders, races and lived experiences. Join us to celebrate how our queer identites are challenging conventions and creating a bold new future for musical theatre!