Theatre Glossary
Whether you're stepping on stage for the first time or picking up a script to read, here's a guide to the terms you'll encounter in the world of theatre.
28 terms in Musical Theatre
Tenor
The higher male vocal range, prized in both opera and musical theatre for its brightness, power, and emotional expressiveness. Tenors typically play romantic leads and heroes. The range subdivides into lyric tenor (smooth, flexible), dramatic tenor (powerful, ringing), and heldentenor (heroic). From Jean Valjean in Les Misérables to the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera, tenor roles dominate the musical theatre canon.
Musical TheatreTessitura
The range of pitches within which a vocal part predominantly sits—not the extreme highs and lows a singer can hit, but the "comfortable working range" where most of the notes fall. Tessitura is crucial in casting: a role might technically be within a performer's range but exhausting if the tessitura sits at the top of their voice for extended periods. Smart composers write tessituras that showcase a voice type's strengths.
Musical TheatreUnderscore
Background music played beneath spoken dialogue or stage action to create atmosphere, build tension, or support emotional moments without being the primary focus. Underscoring is a fundamental tool in musical theatre, film, and television. A skilled composer uses underscore to guide the audience's emotional experience subtly—the audience feels its effect without necessarily being consciously aware of it.
Musical TheatreVamp
A short musical passage repeated as many times as needed to cover stage business, dialogue, or an actor's entrance before the next section of a song begins. The conductor watches the stage and cues the orchestra to move on when the moment is right. Vamps give performers flexibility—if a costume change runs long or an entrance is delayed, the vamp simply keeps repeating.
Musical Theatre