New British musicals 'at risk without subsidies'

Good article and I do agree.

Are popular musicals staged at Christmas to bankroll the theatres other productions throughout the year?

A lot of the public sector could learn from the Watermill who create wonders on a shoestring. Not every show has to have a huge cast, orchestra and a revolve. Yes NT I'm talking to you!



Edit. I went off topic as the subject is new musicals. But Watermill are staging two new musicals in the coming months

I agree. New British musicals are sorely lacking and it feels like the west end is full of US imports at the moment, or revivals of US musicals. When was the last time a new British musical really became a runaway success? Could we even count 10 across the last decade?

Yes, my only thought was Matilda too, and as it is an RSC production... does that mean it was subsidised too? Which basically proves the point (if it was). Matilda was first performed almost 10 years too.

How many American musicals are created with state subsidy?

^Yes,musicals should have the same equal treatment as other theatre styles.Guessing that audience numbers for MT are very high in the UK.

No matter how strong the sentiment about musicals deserving to be better funded - I thought it was a pretty ropey piece of journalism and seemed to be basically a cut and paste from three interviews with very little research or context to back up the claims. Any article which implies that musicals are created by 'songwriters' should certainly be taken with a pitch of salt.

OxfordSimon hits the nail on the head - it really is a case of looking at ways of using the 'pots' more effectively. As noted above many theatres do use some of their public subsidy to develop new musicals some of which go on to have a further life whilst others don't. In addition to Jamie, Sheffield Theatres developed and staged Flowers for Mrs Harris and Standing at the Sky's Edge. The Lyric Hammersmith produced Leave To Remain; Birmingham Rep - One Love: the Bob Marley Musical; The Mercury Theatre Colchester - Pieces of String; and Northampton and Ipswich jointly produced The Season. All of these theatres receive funding from Arts Council England, and have chosen to develop these works - none of which are, to quote Rupert Goold, 'obviously commercial'.

Indeed Goold could use some of his Almeida pot to stage the work he describes. To date, however, he has only produced one musical during his tenure as Artistic Director, and that was set in New York, based on an American novel with American book writer and composer/lyricist - and one which clearly had an eye on the commercial market - hence the subsequent rather unsuccessful Broadway production

Worth noting that Pitch Perfect Musicals and Mercury Musical Developments both get some, albeit limited, funding from Arts Council England and in 2018 James Dacre of Northampton Royal and Derngate announced that the theatre had been given £684,000 over a three year period by Arts Council England to develop new musical theatre specifically for mid-scale venues. He said that the theatre would lead a consortium comprising producing companies China Plate and Improbable and musical theatre development companies Mercury Musical Developments, Musical Theatre Network and Perfect Pitch, as well as Scottish Opera. This funding presumably happened because, as Simon said, they made a case for it and ACE decided it was a worthwhile investment.

The topic is new musicals here, but if the NT puts on a show like Follies for example I would expect a huge cast, orchestra and a revolve. This is something that they can and should do.

All I'm going to say is www.royalandderngate.co.uk/whats-on/beam2020/

I went to BEAM 2018 and discovered some fantastic shows, including The Season, which I saw a workshop at the Other Palace and them went to Royal Derngate to see the production.

NOTE. The auditorium there was FREEZING; had to wear my coat; considering it was in November...They need to work on that, if they haven't done so already!