[mjr]

I have always wondered what happens to sets after a show is finished with them in the west, although some may go on tour, i realise some sets don't have the facility to do this. Can anyone shed some light on this??

[Orchestrator]

I have always wondered what happens to sets after a show is finished with them in the west, although some may go on tour, i realise some sets don't have the facility to do this. Can anyone shed some light on this??

Sometimes they are put in storage, possibly way out of London eg Wales. Mostly they are trashed. You don't want to watch!

[Matthew Winn]

Often the remains of a show will go into storage in case they're needed for another production in future, or they may even be shipped off straight away. Evita's set, for instance, went to Australia. However, storage costs money, so if the production company thinks there's no real prospect of making enough money out of the set to cover the cost of storing it then it'll be broken up for scrap. Some parts can be reused for other shows; the rest is dumped. For example, when UK Productions' tour of Anything Goes came to an end in the middle of 2001 half of the ship found gainful employment on tour with the same company's Ready Steady Dance that autumn.

Sometimes a set will be beyond help. Some bits of the 2002 tour of Singin' In The Rain became so mouldy from constant wetting that they had to be condemned. It wasn't worth putting the rest into storage so as much as possible was auctioned off to the cast and crew.