Performing Nostalgia: Medievalism in King Arthur and Camelot

Although written in distinct styles that reflect the different contexts in and audiences for which they were originally penned, Joseph Comyns Carr’s King Arthur and Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s Camelot both engage medievalism as a means of reimagining the relationship between past and present idealisms. A comparison of these two theatrical spectacles illustrates the extent to which Arthurian nostalgia can stage a connection among diverse audiences through its performance of a longing for universal or timeless ‘truths’ over specific historical moments.