Program Overview

BFA in Musical Theatre Major

About this Program

Musical Theatre is the ultimate collaborative storytelling art form. Our students learn to incorporate music, dance, and acting with a liberal arts education to create and produce compelling and imaginative theatre.

Why Study BFA in Musical Theatre at MMC?

The BFA in Musical Theatre major is a rigorous program combining training in acting, singing, and dancing with a robust liberal arts education. Our curriculum will prepare you for a successful professional career in the musical theatre industry while also providing you the education to be a global citizen and creative changemaker. In your first year, you’ll jump right into your musical theatre training with over 12-hours of studio instruction a week. In upper-level classes, you’ll perfect your technique and prepare for your career in The Musical Theatre Song Portfolio and Professional Preparation: Musical Theatre.

What You Will Learn as a BFA in Musical Theatre Major

• Acting Training: Our Acting faculty will compel you to use your very own imagination, instinct, and intellect to actively ignite your process. You will learn how to demonstrate the concept of “live truthfully under imaginary circumstances,” in tandem with voice training and body awareness, script analysis, and participation in rehearsal process techniques. Accompanied with respectful rigor and support, our faculty will assist you in developing and demonstrating initiative, discipline, agency, and responsibility for your work as performing artists.
• Dance Training: As a BFA in Musical Theatre student you will train in our Daily Dance program. Each year you’ll dance five days a week with working professionals, studying a variety of disciplines including tap, ballet, and theatre dance.
• Vocal Training: By working with your private voice teacher every week, you will have an individualized course of study over your four years at Marymount Manhattan. You will learn healthy vocal technique, vocal anatomy, productive practice routines, and how to approach song study for a musical perspective.

Required Courses

• Stagecraft
• Script Analysis
• Daily Dance (every semester for 4-years)
• Private Voice (every semester for 4-years)
• Voice and Speech I and II
• Acting: Process and Technique
• Acting: Beginning Scene Study
• Fundamentals of Musical Theatre A and B
• Musical Theatre Techniques I and II
• Theatre Histories I and II
• Elements of Directing
• Shakespeare, the Stage, and Humanity
• Scene into Song I and II
• Acting: Intermediate Scene Study
• Acting: Advanced Scene Study
• The Musical Theatre Song Portfolio
• Professional Preparation: Musical Theatre
• Advance Studies in Drama and Theatre

Combine this major with…

• Music Industry Minor
• Music Minor
• Arts Management Minor

Program Highlights

Exciting Courses

You’ll have the opportunity to take a wide variety of theatre electives such as Directing Musicals, Cabaret Performance, Pop/Rock Performance, Acting for the Camera, Performing Shakespeare, Songwriting in the Studio, and Actor, Role, Celebrity: The Haunted Body on the Musical Stage.

New York City Campus

You’ll use the entire city as your campus. Whether you’re attending shows on Broadway or across NYC, completing research at the New York Public Library, or traveling to an off-campus class, you’ll experience all that the city has to offer—including masterclasses and lectures by Broadway’s finest from Jeff Calhoun to Chita Rivera to Kathleen Marshall.

Performance Experience

Our performance opportunities include fully produced musicals on campus as well as a yearly off-site Studio Workshop productions at venues such as the National Dance Institute or York Theatre Company. You’ll have the privilege of working with guest artists such as Richard Stafford, Patricia Birch, Marcia Milgrom Dodge, and Jeff Shade.

Careers and Outcomes

Marymount Manhattan College Theatre Arts alumni are working on Broadway, off-Broadway, in television, in film, at regional theaters, and everywhere in between. Many of our students also go on to graduate schools across the country and around the world.

Alumni Success Stories

• Emmy Raver-Lampman, Class of 2012, B.A. in Theatre Arts and Musical Theatre, Broadway’s A Night with Janis Joplin, Jekyll & Hyde, and Hamilton
• Aaron Glick, Class of 2006, B.A. in Theatre Arts, Winner, Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play for The Boys in the Band

Top College Program

Each year, the team at OnStage Blog announces the best performing arts schools for the coming year based on research by theatre educators, students, alumni, and parents—the people who really know what’s important in theatre education. MMC made the cut and was praised for our impressive master classes and lectures.