Remembering Adam Lenson

Dr Pamela Karantonis from the School of Music, English and Theatre pays tribute to Adam Lenson, Musical Theatre Director and former Guest Lecturer in Musical Theatre.

We wish to pay tribute to Adam Lenson, the Musical Theatre Director and former Guest Lecturer in Musical Theatre, who sadly passed away at the age of 41 after a long illness.

With outputs that challenged the borders between imaginative theatre-making and new musical theatre, Adam’s output has made an incalculable impact on new Musical Theatre writing in the UK and beyond. He was a keynote presenter at the UK's industry body, the Musical Theatre Network, leading conversations around making musicals culturally relevant. As author of 'Breaking into Song: Why You Shouldn’t Hate Musicals' and the podcast 'Dischord: Figuring out Musical Theatre', Adam was equally a leading intellectual influence on debates around musicals, as he was an artist, contributing interview material to Robert Gordon’s publication 'The Theatre of Kander and Ebb.'

At Goldsmiths, Adam directed the UK premiere of the political cartoon musical 'Doonesbury' for Musical Theatre final year students in 2023, as well as delivering inspirational online teaching during the pandemic.

His range of projects encompassed the rockumentary about the Brontë family 'Wasted' (written by Goldsmiths colleague, Chris Ash). In 2024, his production of 'Cable Street' for the Southwark Playhouse received critical acclaim for its imaginative response to staging the historical events of The Battle of Cable Street in 1936, an enduring example of London’s resistance against British fascism.