While music in musical theater has already been the object of studies and debates (Tinhorão, 1981; Gomes, 1998; Bessa, 2012), the broader sound dimensions of this kind of spectacle – which includes not only singing and instrumental music, but the speech itself, the scenic sounds, the noises of the audience, the acoustic environment, the auditory techniques (Sterne, 2003) of the audience – remain unexplored. The understanding of “theater as a place where one listens” (Larrie and Mervant-Roux, 2016) has only marginally gained ground in Brazilian research on the performing arts, and particularly in musical theater. However, it is known that hearing is as fundamental as seeing in the theatrical experience, and that sound imagery is as important as visual one for understanding the mass culture born with the “society of the spectacle” (Charle, 2012). Based on recent theoretical contributions from Sound Studies (a field that emerged in reaction to the hegemony of the visual in Western society's thought and imagination, promoting the so called the acoustic turn), this research project intends to produce theoretical reflections and historical analyzes on listening and sound in the musical theater in the city of São Paulo. To what extent has the acoustic experience of watching operettas, burletas and revues in large halls shaped the audience’s music listening? Conversely, what was the impact of the mechanical sound recording on the theatrical reception? Which sources can be explored for the study of the aural experience in musical theater? Here are some questions that guide this research work.