Developing Questions in my Professional Practice

Muscial theatre (my current area of practice) is a constantly changing medium, and it has to be to ensure long-term financial security and economic relevance.

Just last night I was watching the Olivier awards and the commentators were talking about a new breed of musical productions where a successful run is measured in years. Even 20 years ago there were very few musicals that could sustain that kind of success, if a production ran for over a year it was considered to be a hit both financially and artistically. Yet in today’s musical industry, a musical is judged on success on a much tougher scale. A big budget west end musical can take years to recoup the investment initially put into it, even when top ticket prices are at the dizzy heights of £65 or even £70. From a business perspective musical theatre is a traditionally risky investment in the first place and yet more and more we are seeing shows last for decades and I think it throws up some very interesting questions about the state of musical theatre in Britain, especially in the context of a recession.

I am very interested in the paradox between Musical theatre as an art form, and musical theatre as a business.

I suppose there are many interesting questions that rise to the surface of my thoughts, some of them, with thought and research, may be answerable. Yet others are much broader and fall into the “pseudo question” category and are questions that may open the door to other questions.

Here are some of my thoughts;

Is Musical Theatre an art form or a business?

Or is it both? Which is more important? Without the investment of producers is the art form meaningful? Can Modern musical theatre exist on it’s own without the “bells and whistles” of a big production?

What Does Musical theatre need to survive in a recession?

Musicals seem to be doing well compared to other commercial art forms in the current climate, but why? Do people need escapism? When disposable income is so tight, what makes people spend a substantial amount of money in theatre?

Is celebrity casting needed?

Many productions need a big name that is guaranteed to sell seats but is this a good thing? Would the piece sell if X Y or Z were not appearing? Are people buying tickets to see their favourite pop star play Marius or are they paying to see Les Mis? Does it matter? If we get them in the door with a hook will they be open to seeing other productions?

Please excuse my ramblings but I’m trying to get to grips with the direction the industry is moving. Les Miserables is actually a very good case study;

In 1980 Boublil and Schonberg created the musical Les Miserables from the book by victor Hugo. There was no big name involved (although many of the cast became stars later) and in fact Les Mis opened to some scathing reviews by critics and was forecast to be a flop. 30 years on and it is still playing in the west end.

If Boublil and Schonberg came up with Les mis today, would it work? A musical with the word miserable in the title? A musical not based on a movie or with a back catalogue of famous songs, would it have been seen as commercially viable? Even today you can go and see Gareth Gates and soon Matt Lucas in the production so is it just a sign of the times that even the west end cornerstone musicals have had to look at modernising so that they can compete with shows like Legally Blonde, Wicked and We Will Rock You.

I hope this doesn’t come across as a pessimistic view of the state of musical theatre today, it’s simply an observation and I have yet to be convinced whether or not celebrity casting is a good thing for the business or not, but the main question I have is could we survive without it?