Theatre and music come together in all kinds of forms from opera to the musical, from vaudeville to Beyoncé's Renaissance tour. But some think theatre and music bring out the worst in each other - the aesthetic integrity and authenticity of music degraded by crowd-pleasing theatrics; the artistic precision and profundity of drama diluted by music's emotional manipulation and artifice.

Theatre and Music instead argues that theatre is the best place to do music and performance comes alive in musical contexts. Looking at a range of encounters between these two art forms - collaboration and collision, juxtaposition and hybridity - across many forms of performance from high art to pop and folk cultures, it argues that music is everywhere in theatre and theatre is everywhere in music. Music and theatre can be live or pre-recorded, improvised on the spot, used as underscore or integrated into narrative: the theatrical centre of attention or a throb of barely-noticed dramaturgy, shifting in and out of focus.

Written by a prolific composer for theatre, whose works spans musicals, ballet, plays, cabaret, circus, immersive interactivity and devised experimentation, Theatre & Music incorporates a dazzling range of historically and culturally diverse case studies to explore what happens when theatre and music meet.