‘Fun Music with My Friends’: ‘Musicking-as-Play’ in the West End Theatre

Musicking-as-play is an ontological conceptualisation that equips us to look at music-making practices in new ways in order to reveal future potentials for music education. This article discusses a theory-testing case study which applies the ‘musicking-as-play’ lens to what is, from the outside, often viewed as the least creative and most restrictive professional music-making context: the highly repetitive environment of the musical theatre band. If ‘musicking-as-play’ is present there, the thinking goes, then the conception is sufficiently robust to be applied more generally and to influence how music performance is taught. Following detailed observations of their working practices, five band members of a long-running West End musical in London and an experienced musical director were interviewed about their professional experiences. Many of these musicians had performed the show well over 1000 times, up to eight times a week for many years. Questions were based on a theoretical framework which sets play in relief alongside ritual, work and communitas. Findings confirm that the musicians perceived their work as a form of play, and a number of context-specific characteristics of play are identified. Implications for conservatoire pedagogies are discussed.