Musical Theatre: More than Entertainment

By Claudia
Published April 11, 2025

Musical theatre is fun to watch and perform in, but did you know it also improves your mental health? James Corden, English actor, comedian, and two time host of The Tony Awards says that musical theatre helps his child be more confident. Norm Lewis, American actor and third to play The Phantom in Phantom of the Opera on Broadway says that musical theatre is comforting and helps him manage his mental health. Musical theatre can help you with communication, it increases confidence, and gives you a chance to feel similar feelings that a character feels. For many reasons including these, musical theatre improves people’s mental health around the world. 

One way musical theatre can help better your mental health is with communication. Forestburgh Playhouse says this is because in musical theatre you are around people who have similar interests as you. You can have the chance to interact and talk with them more because you both enjoy musical theatre. It also encourages communication because when you are saying lines, you are talking to other people. You would probably feel more comfortable talking to someone after saying lines with them. Since you would be in rehearsals a lot, you would get more chances to talk to people. It doesn’t matter if you’ve met them before or not, soon you’ll have a friend that you can feel free to share things with.

Not only does musical theatre encourage communication, it also increases your confidence. River City Theatre Company says this is because you learn how to sing, speak, and dance with confidence in front of an audience when you are in musical theatre. Some people have stage fright and doing this could help them get rid of it. But if you have stage fright or even if you don’t, doing musical theatre gives you a chance to try something new and maybe step out of your comfort zone. 

One other reason that musical theatre is good for your mental health is it can help you process your emotions. Intermountain Health says this is because when a character expresses big feelings like sadness, fear, or anger, you can feel more comfortable doing the same. When a character sings a sad song you might feel like crying. When a character is mad at someone else, you might get mad with them. When a character is scared, you might think about something that scares you. Doing this can reduce stress and makes you feel a stronger appreciation for diverse human feelings and emotions.

Musical theatre is a diverse community where we can try new things and have fun. We can think about our mental health from watching plays and musicals and also improving our mental health by watching and performing in it. Musical theatre is one of the things that makes up the beautiful world of art today. No matter what age you are, you can still perform. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, big or small, short or tall, you are always able to do musical theatre.