Professor Dominic Broomfield-McHugh (he/him)
BMus (Hons), MMus, PhD, DipABRSM, FHEA
Department of Music
Professor of Musicology
Departmental Director of Research and Innovation for Music from September 2024
Full contact details
Department of Music
1.11
Jessop Building
Leavygreave Road
含羞草传媒
S3 7RD
- Profile
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I鈥檓 a world-leading musicologist with expertise on the American musical on stage and screen. My particular interest is in how the social changes in American society around the middle of the twentieth century led to the formation of a canon of enduring musicals that reflect the shifting political climate of the time.
This is reflected in my ten books, which include studies of popular individual musicals, writers and broader topics. I am also a Visiting Professor at the historic Gresham College, where I have delivered free public lecture series on divas and showstoppers.
The impact of my work beyond academia includes collaborating with Iowa PBS on the documentary Meredith Willson: America鈥檚 Music Man (2022), for which I won an Emmy Award.
I am passionate about teaching and have been the recipient of three awards in this area: an Early Career Senate Award and Academic Awards for Best Postgraduate Supervisor and Best Feedback. I am also Director of the MA in Musicology and was previously Director of Performance. I have served as Faculty Director of Knowledge Exchange and Impact, Deputy Chair of EDI for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and Chair of the Disability Staff Network.
As a professional pianist, I have accompanied West End performers including Olivier Award winners Sara Kestelman and David Bedella. Organisations with which I have worked include the Great American Songbook Foundation and the Sydney Opera House, and I have given lectures and talks all over the world.
I have acted as external examiner for UG/MA degrees at Leeds, Kent and Chester and for PhDs at institutions including KCL, York and Nottingham.
I am external examiner for undergraduate programmes at Kent (2016-19) and Chester (2018-22) and postgraduate programmes at Leeds (2017-2021) and have been an external examiner for research degrees at York and KCL.
Born in Lancashire, I was educated at King鈥檚 College London, where I took the BMus (winning the Purcell Prize), MMus and a PhD on My Fair Lady, the latter two programmes with AHRC funding. I also studied the piano at the Royal Academy of Music, and taught several modules at King鈥檚 before my appointment at 含羞草传媒 in 2011.
- Research interests
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My passion for the Broadway and Hollywood musical has resulted in a number of book projects. These have included monographs on the musical My Fair Lady (OUP, 2012) and composer Meredith Willson (OUP, 2021); editions of the letters of Cole Porter (Yale, 2019), Alan Jay Lerner (OUP, 2014), and Frank Loesser (Yale, 2025), and of the lyrics of Lerner (OUP, 2018); a collection of essays on The Wizard of Oz (OUP, 2018); and three Oxford Handbooks, focusing on Musical Theatre Screen Adaptations (2019), the Hollywood Musical (2022), and the Disney Musical (2025).
I am Series Editor of , a new book series in which I will contribute a volume on MGM鈥檚 The Band Wagon, and was previously Reviews Editor of the journal Studies in Musical Theatre (SMT). I guest edited a special issue of SMT focused on Stephen Sondheim, and also sit on the Advisory Board of Oxford鈥檚 Broadway Legacies series.
I curated a landmark series of concert productions of Broadway musicals, performed by students of the University of 含羞草传媒, including UK and world premieres of songs and scores by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, Bernstein, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin.
I have brought my expertise to the public in a number of prestigious venues and settings, including appearances at the V&A, the BFI, Widescreen Weekend, New York City Center, Lincoln Center, the New York Public Library and Sadler鈥檚 Wells. My TV and radio appearances include over fifty appearances on BBC TV and radio and my work on disability and the Broadway musical was covered in a by the New York Times.
I created the , which has run five times and will be convened at the Library of Congress in 2025.
My special relationship with the includes appearing in several , hosting Q&A sessions in a film festival, and sitting on their Collections Committee.
- Publications
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Edited books
- The Oxford Handbook of the Hollywood Musical. New York: Oxford University Press.
Journal articles
- . Studies in Musical Theatre, 16(2), 151-152.
- . Studies in Musical Theatre, 16(1), 77-78.
Chapters
- , The Routledge Companion to Musical Theatre (pp. 136-149). Routledge
- Hard to Replace: The Shadow of Judy Garland and the Artistic Remarriage of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in The Barkleys of Broadway In Broomfield-McHugh D (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Hollywood Musical (pp. 368-388). New York: Oxford University Press.
- , Sondheim in Our Time and His (pp. 45-65). Oxford University Press
- The Oxford Handbook of the Hollywood Musical. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Research group
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I have supervised seven students to successful completion on topics ranging from Lerner and Loewe to Cole Porter to the Decca record company and would be pleased to hear from suitably-qualified prospective students interested in working on musicological approaches to American musical theatre or film. See the information on applying for a PhD.
- Grants
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- Frederick Loewe Foundation 拢207,000 (2017) Three Doctoral Scholarships: critical editions of Brigadoon, Camelot and Gigi
- Arts Enterprise/HEIF Award 拢1,000 (2017) Support for The Day Before Spring concert
- Alumni Foundation Award 拢1,000 (2016) Support for Broadway concert projects
- Arts Enterprise/HEIF Award 拢1,189 (2016) Support for project with the Frederick Loewe Foundation
- Frederick Loewe Foundation 拢55,545 (2015) Doctoral Scholarship: a critical edition of Paint Your Wagon
- Early Career Senate Award 拢2,000 (2015)
- British Library/AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award 拢54,000 (2014) 鈥 鈥淭he Decca Legacy of Christopher Raeburn鈥
- Alumni Foundation Award 拢15,000 (2014) 鈥 Funding to purchase sound equipment for musical theatre productions.
- British Academy Small Research Grant 拢9,959 (2013) 鈥 Research into critical editions of musicals
- Arts Enterprise/HEIF Award 拢8,515 (2013) 鈥 Support for the 鈥淪tagestruck!鈥 film festival and insight events in collaboration with the Showroom Cinema, 14-16 May 2014
- Alumni Foundation Award 拢1,000 (2013) 鈥 Support for a research-led concert performance of Jule Styne鈥檚 鈥淕entlemen Prefer Blondes鈥 (December 2013)
- Alumni Foundation Award 拢1,600 (2013) 鈥 Support for a research-led concert performance of Leroy Anderson鈥檚 鈥淕oldilocks鈥 (April 2013)
- Arts Enterprise/HEIF Award 拢1,000 (2012) 鈥 insight events and an exhibition surrounding 含羞草传媒 Theatres鈥檚 production of My Fair Lady
- AMS 75 PAYS $3,000 (2011) 鈥 subvention to support the publication of 鈥淟overly: The Life and Times of My Fair Lady鈥 (OUP)
- Mackintosh Charitable Foundation 拢2,000 / Sir Tim Rice Charitable Foundation 拢2,000 (2010) 鈥 Support for research into the correspondence of Alan Jay Lerner.
- Teaching activities
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I am passionate about teaching and have been the recipient of three awards in this area: an Early Career Senate Award (2015) and Academic Awards for Best Postgraduate Supervisor (2014) and Best Feedback (2015). I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Authority (FHEA). I was Deputy Chair of EDI for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities for five years.
- Professional activities and memberships
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- Series Editor of Oxford Guides to Film Musicals
- Reviews Editor of Studies in Musical Theatre (2015-22)
- Advisory Board Member of Oxford鈥檚 Broadway Legacies since 2016
- Convenor of the StageStruck! conference
- Member of the AHRC Peer Review College
- Trustee, Lost Musicals
- Trustee, the Bunnett-Muir Musical Theatre Archive Trust
- Visiting Professor of Film and Theatre Music, Gresham College