They say you should never work with children or animals; fortunately, Broadway is generally speaking not exactly replete with fauna, but the modern musical is increasingly becoming the home of frustratingly talented nippers. Let’s take a look at some recent showcases for plucky youngsters with dazzling smiles and better CVs than you or I will […]
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The end of last month brought London the glitz, glamour and ennui that is the Olivier Awards. It’s always a long, trying evening, and this year’s lather, step and repeat culminated in Kevin Spacey (!) singing (!!) Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (!!!) with Beverley Knight (!!!!) and Kev on harmonica (?). Anyway, […]
The post New is Different Than Good appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
A couple of weeks ago two show announcements came on the same day that would have had the writers of Forbidden Broadway rubbing their hands together with glee. In a West End market currently saturated with revivals, and original productions of 1980s ‘mega-musicals,’ it was revealed that Evita (1978) and Cats (1981), both hits by British […]
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I had the pleasure earlier this month of spending time in the company of some of the frontrunners of contemporary British musical theatre. This week I’ll be discussing my conversations with Andy Barnes, Executive Producer of Perfect Pitch, which is ‘the UK’s leading development network for musical theatre.’ They are perhaps best known for co-producing […]
The post Across The Pond: The British Contribution (Perfect Pitch) appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Truth be told, the presence of new American writing on the UK musical theatre scene is a fairly scarce one. Although the West End is currently loaded to capacity with American imports, the grassroots material, or at least small-scale and less commercial, seems to hardly get a look in. Although I’m sure there are exceptions […]
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I’ll keep the formal introduction brief… Hello. My name is Jamie. You can read more about me here. This post is the first in a series which I’m writing for the Green Room blog over the coming months entitled ‘Across the Pond,’ which aims to discuss the landscape of contemporary musical theatre in the UK. […]
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In many creative aspects we are taught from a young age that versatility is key to success. Actors and performers spend half of their life worrying about finding their niche, and later worry about being typecast and stuck in a particular casting bracket. There is great debate to be had in this topic – some […]
The post Versatility – the key to success for musical theatre composers? appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Last week marked the re-opening of The Apollo Theatre in the West End, nearly four months after it closed, following the roof collapse mid-show on December 19, 2013. The event shocked London, and also the rest of the country, calling into question not only the capital’s many Victorian buildings, but public buildings as a whole. […]
The post Up in the Gods appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Broadway imports have often kept the West End alive, and in recent years have given London a refreshing wave of new musicals. Over the past year, celebrated hits such as Once and The Book of Mormon have made the transition, often within a year of opening on Broadway and winning handfuls of Tony Awards. It […]
The post Delaying a transfer – “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread” appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Star ratings attached to reviews have long been a heavily debated issue. Most reviews in British national papers, which are still held in highest regard, never used to add star ratings, relying instead on the text to give the reader a full picture of a show’s merits and limitations. We are constantly being told that […]
The post Three Stars Good – Two Stars Bad appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
The internet and social media has taken over so many aspects of everyday life in ways that the current ‘Generation Z’ will never quite be able to understand. Breaking news stories from around the world are now updated live and often as they are happening, defying the traditional methods and means of news communication. It’s […]
The post Gossip’s Worth Its Weight in Gold… appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
This weekend I was lucky enough to see the London premiere of Frank Wildhorn’s 2009 musical Bonnie & Clyde in an inventive production by the musical theatre students at Arts Ed – one of London’s top drama schools. Despite holding amateur rights, the production was as professional as many fringe musicals, thanks in the main to […]
The post That Frank! The Shadow of Flop Musicals appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
In my last post I discussed the current state of commercial musicals in the West End, and how commercialism by its very nature presents challenges to those writing and producing new material. Without an established benefactor behind a show, or dozens of experienced ‘angels’ willing to open their chequebooks, exactly how are new musicals funded? […]
The post Crowdfunding and the Future of New Musical Theatre in London and Beyond appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
London’s West End was once the home of new British musicals, and thanks to business driven individuals such as Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh these iconic shows were exported around the world at an alarming rate. The 1980s saw a boom for original musicals in the West End, and as society was enjoying the […]
The post What’s in a Name? The Passport to Success in the Commercial West End appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
