The cost of producing an Off-West End musical

I feel like if you're producing off west end on a shoestring the first thing you might need to think about is cutting down the ensemble size and having people double up (As you probably have seen, this is done all the time, one of the most noticeable examples of this is in Sunny Afternoon, where two actors play two very different, but large, featured roles, one in each act.) as paying all of those actors is going to be a huge cost in itself. And think of cheap ways to represent different locations without having to change the set too much (representative set pieces/ props and lighting). And before you do it in London or at a large venue you'll need to do readings and performances in cheaper studios/venues out of town. These will also cost you a lot of money, and time, but will help get people on board to help with funding if it's got potential.

I'm sure someone else probably has better advice for you. All of mine comes from my involvement with various fringe productions but I'm certainly no expert on the intricacies of the process.

Also, I suspect this may get moved to General Chat?

Yeah, we'll definitely do readings in small venues beforehand. I was thinking of first doing some kind of concert version first without staging and people just singing the songs, and maybe someone narrating the general story line. If we get a good director he'll definitely be able to come up with some representative set pieces. An off-west end run is my ultimate goal at the moment, but I realise that it will be a long road. 

I also planned on having one actor play 2 parts, but for the other roles that's impossible because they are often in scenes together.

I was in doubt whether I should post this in the General Chat or in Musicals. I figured as it's about making a musical it belonged in Musicals, but Admin can move it to General Chat if they feel like it doesn't belong here

A typical London am-dram show has a budget of around £10-15k for a week, without paying actors, although that usually involves paying for rights if it's a musical. If it's a longer run, there aren't really many more costs involved other than hiring a venue. It's the initial outlay that's the pricy bit.

To give some rough ideas on money, a 100 seat theatre will cost you about 2 to 2.5 grand a week to hire. You then need to pay your company. Equity state that this should £200, although some producers will only pay half that or eve=n just profit share (although those producers often have a reputation of production good quality work and so people want to work for them). So for 20 actors, a band of say 4, and a crew of 3, you are looking £5400. Then you have the creative fees (director, choreographer, set designer, lighting designer, sound designer etc), which can be up to £750 even in the fringe, then you need to pay for the set and costumes to be built, hire of sound and lighting equipment, and then you have to start spending on marketing to actually get people to come... Essentially, it is massively expensive, and there is a lot of money to loose.

My advice? Don't self produce. Look at what is on in the fringe, see who produces shows similar to yours, and then arrange a meeting to talk about your show and see if you can convince them. There are schemes like From Page to Stage (which you may be too late for the deadline this year, but ample time for next) where you can submit shows and if they are good enough they will be performed in part at a gala or even in full.

As an aside, don't worry about set changes etc. That is the job of the director and designers to "create" those spaces. Oh, and Hope Mill I believe is profit share.

Yeah, I'll probably talk to some fringe producers about the show. Hopefully someone is interested in it. 

That's an excellent idea partytentdown, and certainly how I got involved with a lot of new writing. A load of enthusiastic performers (and often resting/retired actors / actors who've moved on to different things but still enjoy performing) and often they'll have their own venue hired too, which is a plus! ;D

Thanks

Yeah, we'll find a way to put it on

No I'm not going to sell my house lol

I'm hoping to get a fringe producer on board. And we'll probably start off with a concert and we'll see where it goes from there. But I won't give up very easily 

I think that even though it's set in Britain, it's a story that people from all around the world might find interesting.

Thanks. I'll post some stuff once we get some demo tracks recorded