Much has been reported recently of the terrible news that shows are closing at breakneck speed both here and on Broadway. The media declares that the credit crunch is taking its next victim: the musical. However, if we actually look at the facts as opposed to the media hype and scare-mongering (my cards on the table now: I am not a financial expert, however in the view of this humble muso some of the current economic situation could have been alleviated if the media had not been forecasting doom for the last few months), I’m confident that we would find that the departing shows have either come to the end of their natural life, or simply been put out of their misery$$s$$ as a nation we put our pets down to end their suffering, yet insist that a musical goes on to the bitter end in the vague hope that it might suddenly be declared a hit.
I confess to being rather sad about a few announcements, in particular Avenue Q finishing (puppet nudity is an overlooked speciality I think), however can we really blame it on the credit crunch? As West End musicals go, it is one of the cheapest. Indeed Mackintosh and his team did the unthinkable with this show and lowered its pricing structure to facilitate its target audience (that being poor students and the less affluent 20+). From the outset Avenue Q had a difficult job getting its demographic to attend, as 20+ are not renowned for going to see musical theatre – especially when there is a comedy club within walking distance. Yet the new pricing allowed its cult status to gently grow, keeping it in the West End for longer than was expected.
The Sound Of Music closing again is surely nothing to do with the credit crunch, rather the logistical nightmare that was a show based around a star that we the public were going to create$$s$$ the show wasn’t that appealing once ‘our’ star had left.
Eurobeat? I suspect that not enough was spent on marketing this show and with the producers, like Avenue Q’s, going for that elusive cult market, much more had to be thrown at it in the way of raising its profile.
In the States I suspect that it’s a different story again. The American writers have thrown themselves with full gusto into turning every possible film into a musical, with the result that many of them were simply substandard and therefore had to close (Xanadu, anyone?). As a composer myself, I’m sure that it’s comforting for creatives all around the world to blame the failure of their shows on the global economic climate. But I’m equally sure that most of them, like myself, wouldn’t know an economic climate if Sian Lloyd popped it into the daily weather forecast.
So that’s the good news: the credit crunch hasn’t hit musical theatre, just a lack of good shows or targeted marketing. Sadly my next statement will put me in the same league as all the doom merchants that I slated earlier: I believe that the next few years will be affected by the current situation, just like musical theatre was back in the 80s when we last hit a major recession. The big shows will no doubt survive, but if history repeats itself we’ll be straight back into the age of revivals or, in other words, the Producers’ Insurance Policy.
The timing of this could not be more unfortunate, with a groundswell of musical theatre activity in the UK, led by MTM:UK (just a few months ago this organisation ran the UK’s first conference on Musical Theatre, looking at ways in which to develop more home-grown shows by British writers) putting musical theatre on the agenda of many producing houses and companie. At this year’s Edinburgh Festival there was a venue devoted entirely to Musical Theatre (most of it completely original… and British)$$s$$ Perfect Pitch in London will shortly be showcasing 6 brand new musicals, all written by emerging UK writers$$s$$ and Mercury Musical Developments, which supports new writers in the UK, appears to be going from strength to strength (judging by the news section, which gives you a listing of new work by its membership). So there is a creative swell in the UK$$s$$ we’ve finally learnt from the US that we have to start supporting our new writers and not rely on Lord Lloyd Webber for the next mega hit (Eurovision Song Contest aside that is).
But the big question remains: will producers back the shows or will they, as before, go back to giving us revivals of the sure-fire hits starring the latest housemate from Big Brother?
I put it to the jury that only when that decision is made will we honestly know if the credit crunch has hit musical theatre.
