Jo Caird: Hands Up Who Likes Musical Theatre?Date: 15 March 2011
On Sunday night, Legally Blonde picked up three awards, including Best New Musical, at the Oliviers. The producers can add these statuettes to the shelf on which already stand the four awards the show received at Whatstonstage.com’s very own ceremony last month. The production is now booking until March next year, 180,000 new tickets having just been released for sale. In a West End forever dominated by long-runners and jukebox musicals, Legally Blonde is a success story: new musicals are going strong.
But are they? What of the new musicals taking place at the other end of the razzle-dazzle scale, the likes of Drive, Ride, Walk, a virtuosic new show I saw the other weekend at East London venue, Stratford Circus? Are the audiences stumping up £86 for tickets to Legally Blonde willing to take a chance on what Drive, Ride, Walk’s marketing material justly calls ‘unique new piece of music theatre’? I’m not so sure.
Just as audience transferability from West End musicals to straight theatre tends to be low, so is transferability from those big budget, starry shows to smaller-scale, more experimental work. And that’s a big shame because Osnat Schmool’s thrilling a cappella score, combined with Sabina Netherclift’s dynamic direction, makes for one of the most exciting and funny evenings of musical theatre I’ve had the pleasure to witness. The critics have praised many aspects of Legally Blonde; its score is not one of them.
But it’s not just a problem of persuading musical theatre fans to see more cutting edge work; when it comes to finding audiences for new music theatre, there’s another hurdle to overcome: the widespread antipathy towards musical theatre in general among the theatre-going public. Now, my evidence is anecdotal, and of course there are plenty of fans of straight drama who also enjoy musical theatre, but this is a genuine issue. I’m talking about the people who write off the whole genre, despite having never seen a piece of live musical theatre; the people who object to it out of snobbery; and the people who’ve had one bad experience at a naff West End show (of which there are plenty) and extrapolate from that that all musical theatre is naff. Not everyone necessarily has to like musical theatre, but it irritates me that so many won’t even give it a chance when there’s some really wonderful, quirky work out there.
You might argue that it doesn’t really matter: there are people who like musicals and people who don’t and the world of theatre is none the worse for this friendly difference of opinion. But a quick look at the nominees and winners in the music theatre categories at the Oliviers, the Whatsonstage.com awards and the Evening Standard Theatre Awards – all of them dominated by American shows, either revivals or transfers, including of course, Legally Blonde – reveals that there are negative consequences to the British public’s unwillingness to experiment with new musical theatre.
Experimental and fringe work (whether musical theatre, live art, interactive theatre, or whatever else) is obviously always going to attract smaller audiences than its mainstream equivalents, but it’s disappointing that while the jukebox musicals and film adaptations are grossing huge sums in the West End, Drive, Ride, Walk is playing tiny crowds in out of the way London venues. The future of new British musical theatre writing depends on work like this, so if you think you don’t like musicals, perhaps it’s time to give one a try.
- by Jo Caird
Any opinions expressed above do not represent the view of Whatsonstage.com nor any of its staff or contributors beyond the bylined author.
 | Jo Caird is a freelance arts journalist and has been deputy Off-West End editor of Whatsonstage.com since June 2009. Jo tweets at @JoCaird. Her personal website is JoCaird.com |
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| Jo Caird: The trouble with statistics - 2nd Feb 2012 blog |
| Jo Caird: The changing face of arts journalism - 24th Jan 2012 blog |
| Jo Caird: My top 100 theatre people to follow on Twitter - 19th Jan 2012 blog |
| Jo Caird: Why Can't We Resist Adaptations of Children's Classics? - 9th Jan 2012 blog |
| Jo Caird: Some Theatre Tips for 2012 - 5th Jan 2012 blog |
| Jo Caird: To Stream, or Not to Stream - 22nd Dec 2011 blog |
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| Internal Links |
| Full List: 2011 Whatsonstage.com Award Winners - 20th Feb 2011 News |
| Results: Laurence Olivier Winners as Announced - 13th Mar 2011 News |
| NT Scoops Seven Oliviers, Blonde & Sondheim - 13th Mar 2011 News |
| Photo: First peek at Sunshine Boys Danny DeVito & Richard Griffiths - 19th Mar 2012 photos |
| Legally Blonde's Carley Stenson goes green as Shrek's Princess Fiona - 8th Mar 2012 news |
| Danny DeVito makes West End debut with Richard Griffiths in Sunshine Boys - 30th Jan 2012 news |
| Legally Blonde posts West End closing notices, 7 April - 25th Jan 2012 news |
| Cast: Ashfield & Thomas Go Blonde, Blackman is Gertie - 31st Aug 2011 news |
| WOS TV: Up Close With ... Legally Blonde's Lee Mead - 1st Aug 2011 tv |
| Top Ten: Awe-inspiring Stage Special Effects - 18th Jul 2011 features |
| Photos: Carley Stenson Takes Over as Legally Elle - 11th Jul 2011 photos |
| Photos: Lee Mead Plays Emmett in Legally Blonde - 20th Jun 2011 photos |
| Brinkley Models Roxie, Carley Stenson Plays Elle - 9th Jun 2011 news |
| WOS Winners Smith & Karimloo Join Gaumond - 6th May 2011 news |
| Blonde Natalie Casey, Seymour-Marsh Joins MDQ - 22nd Mar 2011 news |
| Natalie Casey Next for Legally Blonde??? - 21st Mar 2011 gossip |
| Lee Mead Plays Legally Blonde Emmett from Jun - 17th Mar 2011 news |
| Legally Blonde Starts Tour in Liverpool, Grease - 15th Mar 2011 news |
| Blog: Sheridan Smith's Last Day on Legally Blonde - 8th Jan 2011 blog |
| Susan McFadden Is Legally Blonde Elle from Jan - 17th Dec 2010 news |
| Photos: Van Outen Joins New Legally Blonde Cast - 10th Nov 2010 photos |
| Denise Van Outen Goes Legally Blonde, New Cast - 27th Aug 2010 news |
| Extensions: Sheridan Smith's Elle, Boheme & Mis - 26th Aug 2010 news |
| Van Outen Goes Blonde, Bundy Stays Stateside??? - 11th Aug 2010 gossip |
| OMG! Who Will Star in Legally Blonde from 23 Oct??? - 23rd Jul 2010 gossip |
| Jennifer Ellison Not Legally Bound for West End??? - 2nd Jul 2010 gossip |
| Photos: Richard Fleeshman Bows in Blonde - 29th Jun 2010 photos |
| Musicals Extend: Blonde, Dirty, Thriller & WWRY - 9th Jun 2010 news |
| Cast: Fleeshman Goes Legally, Hoods, Wolfboy - 11th May 2010 news |
| Musicals Extend: Legally Blonde, Priscilla, Stomp - 27th Jan 2010 news |
| Legally Blonde  - 14th Jan 2010 reviews |
| 1st Night Photos: Blonde Has More Opening Fun - 14th Jan 2010 photos |
| Review Round-up: What's the Verdict on Legally? - 14th Jan 2010 roundup |
| 1st Night TV: Legally Blonde’s Pretty in Pink Gala - 14th Jan 2010 tv |
| WOS Radio: Legally Blonde Team Face Questions - 7th Jan 2010 radio |
| Legally Blonde Reports 'Unprecedented' Sales - 22nd Dec 2009 news |
| Photos: Smith & Cast Launch West End Legally - 30th Sep 2009 photos |
| Sheridan Smith & Duncan James Lead Legally - 21st Apr 2009 news |
| Legally Blonde Sets UK Premiere for Savoy, 5 Dec - 1st Apr 2009 news |
