The art of the perfect stage show trailer

As you can imagine here at WhatsOnStage, we watch a lot of trailers for musicals and plays.

Some are relatively straightforward – gimbal-shot clips of performers looking debonaire or singing on stage, belting out the show’s most iconic and/or impressive numbers while a medley of critic’s pull quotes form an orderly queue. They’re fun – easy to watch and giving viewers a morsel as to what to expect from a live experience.

But that live experience really is the tricky part – condensing the raw, unfiltered magic of an evening’s entertainment into a minute’s worth of footage and still make it feel unpredictable and fresh can be a challenge.

Two trailers in the last week have proven how different approaches can really land. The first was STEAM’s trailer for the West End production of Hadestown, a kinetic bombardment of show scenes and narration. In isolation, the moments depicted on stage would look ravishing, but the true win is having Melanie La Barrie’s Hermes talk over the top. In a few sentences, she condenses what could be a relatively abstract plot (Greek gods! Industrialisation! Tragic romances!) into a series of easy hooks – guy loves girl, guy loses girl, guy has to go find girl in the UNDERWORLD. Instantly the stakes are raised and audiences are invested. Kudos to all involved.

The second trailer, another from STEAM, is the new Kiss Me, Kate sting released this morning. Though in principle straightforward – the show’s two stars walking through the Barbican, with a few comedic interruptions by supporting cast members, the team at Trafalgar Entertainment know that, at this early stage, what will sell the show is the innate charisma of Stephanie J Block and Adrian Dunbar – one a Broadway legend making her London musical debut, the other a wise-cracking TV name that has a whole wad of catchphrases to his name.

Any good revival of Kiss Me, Kate has to nail the relationship between Block’s Lilli Vanessi and Dunbar’s Fred Graham, and clearly the producers know this. Showing their testy yet wry relationship intrigues, without being overstated. Meeting the duo last month, their easy chemistry and innate charm was easy to pick up – lord knows how perfect it’ll be come June at the Barbican.

You’d expect nothing less from Trafalgar Entertainment, who even pulled off a nautical performance on The One Show with Anything Goes and Sutton Foster. They know what will pique a punter’s interest.