Mrs Henderson Presents - Noel Coward Theatre

Ohhhhh okay. It's a shame that ticket sales weren't up as the cast were amazing! 

It always intended to extend

They were smart with the publicity by listing it as a limited run, it meant that people would not think it would flop if it closed on that date! Worked evidently.

Of course it won't help with finances, but now, if and when it plays next, people of the genral public wont look at the show like "oh, that is the show that flopped and closed early", they will look at it as "oh, that is the show that played in London for a season". No tickets were lost in the announcement of the closing date. I personally think announcing it as a limited run was a really smart thing to do.

And you think people will say, "Les Mis has run for 30 years, Wicked for 10, and Mrs Henderson for... 4 months- that's fine"

But the hardest part for any show is to gather momentum, look at both Once and Memphis, no one would suggest they are bad shows, but closed a lot earlier than expected.

So if this is to close and nothing has been confirmed yet, what could go in, in its place?

Suggested already on here is the musical The Girls, saying that if it did it would be ironic to play the same venue as the Calander Girls.
I suggested Long Day's Journey Into Night with Jeremy Irons and Leslie Manville.
Anything else could transfer from Statford Upon Avon?
Cannot think of anything that would come in from Barh?
Could be possible that Moderate Soprano might come in from Hampstead.
A Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder could be a possible from Broadway, but generally these transfers like more time.
Fun Home could be a very outside bet, again they like longer time, for marketing to kick in?

I just saw A Gentleman's Guide in the American touring production and it feels like a show that could be very successful in the West End. The two male leads are great parts - the kind of parts good actors would kill for.

I think what sets MHP a little apart from the shows mentioned is the fact that it was a brand new development, the sheer weight of names associated with it and the amount of time and money that must have been invested in it. John Reid, Michael Harrison et al certainly didn't do all that for a four month run at the Noel Coward! By that standard it has flopped in the WE, no other word for it.

Have people been blinded by the mega-success of ALW perhaps? Take him and his monster hits out of the equation and truly successful British Musicals have been a handful perhaps - Blood Brothers has been seen worldwide, Billy Elliot has been a huge success in London and transferred abroad, but what else? Matilda is having a decent run in London, but that's all I can think of.

When I look at home-grown British Musicals in the last 10-20 years, I see a bunch of jukebox musicals and a string of lack-lustre movie adaptations. Billy Elliot might have been a little masterpiece with a story that works very well live on stage, a gripping subject and a fairly decent score. But beyond that, it looks to me like producers were skimming the back catalogue of British films and thinking "Hm, which could be stuffed with a string of mediocre musical theatre songs and plonked on stage?"

I did enjoy "Made in Dagenham" and I'm still looking forward to "Mrs Henderson" since I like the music, but none of this shouts creativity, originality or simply a work of inspiration by a composer/writer who is really keen on a subject that speaks to him personally. It's a huge difference from shows that come from the heart, whether it's ALW's older stuff like Phantom (written for his then-squeeze Sarah Brightman) or Evita (a subject Tim Rice was keen on) or now Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda put years of work into this) or even Book of Mormon.

ALW himself meanwhile still churns out decent tunes but has made terrible choices with his books. There was a good musical lurking in the Stephen Ward-story but not what we saw on stage and the less said about Paint Never Dries, the better.

Stop thinking "what movie can be rehashed as a musical?" and really go with subjects that are intrigueing, fresh and inspirational and let the creative juices flow.

Good post. What's the real basis for the lack of creativity in the British musical scene? There have been some excellent and highly original recent Broadway musicals, including the west end's best new musicals Kinky Boots and In the heights (it wasn't even a legitimate competition between these two and MHP and Bend it)

Instead of focusing on what we're doing wrong, what are they doing right?

That's not fair. Cameron Mackintosh is probably the biggest single investor in musical theatre in the country, including new works.