As Betty Blue Eyes closes, is it curtain call time for the British musical?
Where did all the British musical theatre composers go? A reasonable question to ask when glancing at the West End, a theatrical district saturated with Broadway imports and jukebox musicals. The musical theatre landscape is now dominated by shows built around the back catalogues of music industry giants, such as Mamma Mia! and Thriller, or film adaptations straight from New York like the recent Shrek The Musical. While these shows have their place and they certainly have an audience, there is a worrying lack of originality in the heart of theatreland.
While Broadway still takes the odd risk, with daring and controversial shows like last year's infamous The Scottsboro Boys getting produced on a large scale against all odds, the West End seems averse to taking any chances. This aversion has only been increased by commercial flops such as Spring Awakening, which closed prematurely at the Novello Theatre in 2009 despite a clutch of rave reviews. As closing notices are posted by Betty Blue Eyes, one of the few new British musicals to make it to the West End in recent years, could this be the death knell for this country's musical theatre? Not if the next generation of writers can help it.
From the appearance of the mainstream surface, West End theatregoers would hardly guess that there is a thriving network of innovative British composers lurking beneath. While the West End plays it safe, musical theatre on the Fringe is more exciting than ever, with an ever-growing group of rising talents making their voices heard. The musical theatre writing that is developing on the edges of the mainstream is witty, intelligent, bold and, most importantly, refreshingly original. The challenge is delivering this new writing to a wider audience.
Simon Greiff, an actor turned director and producer, was inspired to meet this challenge by creating SimG Productions, which promotes up-and-coming writing talent through concert showcases and albums. British composers he has championed so far include Stuart Matthew Price, Grant Olding and Dougal Irvine, who had a recent Fringe hit with Departure Lounge at the Waterloo East Theatre. “Over the last five years I realised that the rising young American composers have been coming to the forefront of musical theatre,” Greiff says. “I felt that we should hear from the British contingency too.”
One prominent member of this British contingency is Michael Bruce, who first broke through as the winner of the Notes for the Stage competition in 2007 and grabbed wider notice earlier this year when the YouTube video of his song 'Portrait of a Princess', an ingenious Disney parody performed by West End star Julie Atherton, went viral overnight. He is reassuringly confident about the health of Britain's musical theatre scene, but feels that part of the reason why new work is not making it to the West End is because writers are not aiming at those heights.
“As writers I think we're conditioned to write things that are possible to put on, so we very rarely dream on that massive scale,” he explains. “You write for the size of the theatres that are likely to put it on, but if you're going to do a big West End show then you have to write for that size of theatre.” He goes on to suggest, however, that smaller productions on the Fringe might be a stepping stone towards producers eventually taking a risk on commissioning West End shows from these writers.
Writing duo Jake Brunger and Pippa Cleary are also part of the new generation that is slowly making itself heard. They have achieved past Fringe success in both Edinburgh and London with irreverent comedies Jet Set Go! and The Great British Soap Opera, creating a winning formula of cheeky campness and cutting satire. Like Bruce, they agree that the way in which composers break into the musical theatre world is changing. “There’s no guaranteed ‘way in’ when it comes to musical theatre, so everyone does what they have to do to get their stuff heard,” says Cleary. “Sometimes it’s a case of writing songs for the right people at the right concerts.”
“That being said though, we try and concern ourselves mainly with just shows,” Brunger adds. “I think that’s the only real way to be judged properly as musical theatre writers; to get full shows on. Then you can see how the whole thing works, rather than just whether a stand-alone song works.” In an often hostile commercial landscape, however, concerts of the kind arranged by Greiff can give a big boost to writers who are struggling to find an audience.
As well as promoting songs through concerts and albums, the internet has had a huge impact on the way in which composers get their work noticed. While the West End may not be easily accessible for emerging writers, at least they have technology on their side. As Brunger and Cleary state, “it’s never been easier to get your stuff online through YouTube and Twitter”. The other advantage to releasing work over the web is that there are no restrictions, no producers breathing down the writers' necks, creating an atmosphere of freedom that was previously unheard of.
Instead of taking a traditional road into the West End, this growth of new online avenues could well be a way for musical theatre composers to make a name for themselves, as affirmed by the success of 'Portrait of a Princess'. Bruce in particular enthusiastically embraces the ways in which YouTube might alter the musical theatre scene, saying that “to ignore the fact that YouTube is such a powerful tool would be stupid.”
The prevailing mood among these new writers and their supporters seems to be one of optimism. “It's an exciting time,” says Bruce. “There are some interesting writers coming through at the minute who are moving it forwards. We're not trying to replicate anything that's gone before, we're doing new things.” New is the key word and one that is perfect to describe the work being produced by composers like Bruce. Greiff also concludes on a positive note, insisting that, despite the disappointment of Betty Blue Eyes, “producers and writers must continue, as there will be another British hit – there has to be!”
As the old route of getting a West End commission is blocked up, new ones are excavated. It may be that in future the internet plays a vital role in getting new musicals to the mainstream, in the same way that it revolutionised the music industry not so long ago. As static and safe as the West End may currently seem, the new generation of musical theatre writers are confident in their belief that things are getting better, if slowly. Eventually, no matter how stagnant the surface of the West End, it will have to catch up with the undertow.
Image: Michael Le Poer Trench
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