How do you get commissioned to write a musical?
Since The Curious Case of Benjamin Button opened at Southwark last week, I have had a few young/new composers asking me how I came to be involved in the show. Quite simply this was a direct commission. Or in other words I was hired to write the music and co-write the lyrics for it. The production/show was not my idea. The producer (Jethro Compton) approached me and after talking about the project and doing a sample submission of one of the songs I was hired. This implies another question… perhaps a more important one. How did the producer come to know about me? I’m afraid the old adage is extremely true. It’s all about who you know. If you want to be a professional in this industry then it’s very much time to stop pretending that your talent will shine through and you will be recognised and lifted up to the place where you belong. Yes, talent, skill and craft have a big part to play. BUT I can pretty much guarantee that at some point in the genesis of any commercially successful show, you can go back through all the interactions and find somewhere in there a little story about one person telling another about this show that they loved. It would be very easy to think that this is unfair, that it is purely talent and ability that should be the ultimate decider in who and what is successful, and if our industry was called “SHOW”, I would very much be inclined to agree with you… But it’s not. It’s called “SHOW BUSINESS” and a business rises and falls not only on the quality of it’s product but the way in which that product is discovered by the general public. So is it all about who you know? Or rather is it who knows about you? For example, in this particular curious case… Last August/July I was going about minding my own business when I received an email rather out of the blue from a producer who I had come to know over the last couple of years. They had seen my work on These Trees Are Made of Blood at The Arcola as well as the showcase of The Wicker Husband at The Other Palace, had enjoyed my work very much and had said as much. This producer, had recently been contacted by an old friend of hers from her earlier days producing. He wanted to produce a musical of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and set it in Cornwall with music influenced by the folk tradition. His original composer was no longer involved in the project and he was looking for a replacement at short notice. He had emailed his producer friends in the UK and asked if they had any recommendations for such a commission. Our mutual contact, having seen The Wicker Husband (which is, at it’s heart a folk musical), recommended that he get in touch with me and she did an email introduction for the two of us. And that was that. I met Jethro and we got on very well, I offered to write one song so he could see how we might work together (Interestingly that song did not make it into the final show). The show is now on at Southwark Playhouse. The point is this: If you want to be hit by a truck, you need to get yourself to the road. If you want to catch a train you have to get yourself to the station. This is not about selling out. This is about selling your work. Whether you like it or not, any success in show business means YOU have become a business yourself and you need to treat both yourself and your work in that manner. In the shoe business, you make a shoe, great. Then you put that shoe out in front of people who can sell it for you. This doesn’t mean your family and friends. They are essential, they will lift you up when you’re down, make you feel better when you feel like shit, but what they won’t do is make your business successful. Other people do that. Three types of people in particular: 1. MAVENS: These are people who are absolutely obsessive about their enthusiasms, for instance people who’ve read every single book about Sondheim or musicals, and talk about their obsessions in a passionate way to anyone who will listen, but usually only in a one-to-one session or in small groups with other obsessives. 2. CONNECTORS: We all know people like this… they are the social butterflies, they know everyone who is anyone, and anyone they don’t know they make it their business to find out about. They establish impossible connections with vast numbers of unrelated social groups. They are the hubs to which all roads lead. They will inevitably be one of your six degrees of separation. 3. SALESMEN: These folks can sell anything to anyone, they have business smarts, they have intense charisma which will charm the scales off a snake. They will make you feel as if you’ve never heard such a brilliant idea and they’ll make you feel as if you are missing out if you aren’t part of it. They are masters of FOMO. So why are these people important… they are all important individually but it’s when you put them together that the magic starts to happen… When a MAVEN talks to an interested CONNECTOR, the obsession and enthusiasm of the MAVEN disseminates to a huge array of disparate social groups, which in turn can be picked up by other connectors or Mavens. This is hugely useful but it’s when an interested CONNECTOR comes into contact with a SALESMAN that the magic happens. A CONNECTOR is like a scatter gun, pumping the bullets of your idea in a million different directions in the hope that a bullet will hit something. And you can only hope it’ll hit a SALESMAN… So how do you become a known quantity? I feel utterly ridiculous trying to answer this as I am hardly a known quantity in the industry myself, although I certainly am better known than I used to be. DOWN JASPER!!!! But, I think one answer lies in becoming aware of the peculiar gifts of your friends. This does not mean you’re using them or taking advantage of them. In my group I have chatted with many of them about what sort of person they are, we’ve found it interesting to talk about and funny as well as informative. Some are obvious Mavens, other’s are clearly Connectors or Salesmen. Some are a combination of two, and there are even those rare folks who are all three. Have a beer and a chat with your friends and family, your colleagues and peers, talk about your strengths and weaknesses. Tell them why you’re interested. There’s nothing underhanded in it, it’s simply becoming aware of your social circles natural inclinations. Is there someone who is always out and about, always the social hub of any party, maybe they are a CONNECTOR? Is there someone who just loves talking about details, and is expert at the minutiae in a given field, maybe they are a MAVEN. Have you someone in your life who seems to be able to command attention just by walking into a room, that people are naturally drawn to and people really listen when they talk? Probably a SALESMAN. It’s great to get to know a little but more about your mates, but what you might not have is connections to people in show business. So how do you meet them? How do you become a KNOWN quantity? Well, it’s all a matter of time, work and exposure. For one thing, write quality work. But once it’s written, don’t sit on it… Get yourself along to open mic nights, scratch nights etc, events, talks, enter competitions. And make sure you don’t just stand in the corner. Get up, perform something, give people something to talk about. Get your work on, produce it yourself at first or with a collective, get it to a festival. Make it happen, this is how it starts. Get some training, get better at your craft, make sure the work that people are seeing is of the highest quality. It’s all well and good going up to people at events and talking to them about your work… But it’s far better if they have seen something you’ve actually DONE rather than heard you talk about something you SAY you’ve done. When it comes to proving the quality of your work, talk is extremely cheap. So, how do you get your first commission? 1. Get out there and make the work to start with. 2. Go to events in the industry and get your work seen/heard by people. 3. Repeat steps one and two approximately 1000 times. Then people will start to find you, and one day you might find yourself receiving an email out of the blue from a seed that was planted years ago…
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It’s been a little while away from Blog world, I haven’t seen a huge amount of Derek, Jasper and Colin lately which has been lovely. And I’ve been wondering why that is. Today I’m sitting down by the river in Putney having a little lunch by myself and thinking about life and how strange and wonderful it can be sometimes.
You may know that I’ve been working on a new musical called The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which opens soon at Salisbury Playhouse before arriving in London at Southwark Playhouse on the 15th May. My theatrical work to date has wandered widely across a spectrum of genres and subjects, from the true life stories of Argentinean genocide and mass disappearances in Mexico to tales of a scarecrow’s wedding and the grumpiest boy in the world, to stories inspired by the Syrian refugee crisis and Alan Turing to stories of fairies, sprites and extraordinary spouses made entirely from Wicker. So when someone asks me what sort of work I make, for a long time I didn’t really know what to say… Now I just say that I’m a storyteller. And the stories I choose to tell are the ones that spark a little spark in my imagination and give my heart a little kick. The spark will never be a bonfire at the very beginning. The kick will never be more than a little nudge, certainly a far cry from a coronary. For me that’s not the nature of things work. In all of the stories I’ve been privileged to tell, the excitement grows as the work grows. As you discover the story, the imagination begins to spark everywhere, the heart starts to thump deeply and by the time it finally comes to fruition on stage it has become an electrical thunderstorm in my head and a thumping march in my heart. Such was the situation with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The show that we have made is unashamedly romantic in it’s nature. but interestingly I have never been particularly interested in telling purely romantic stories. By which I mean the principal driver of the show is the drama and conflict inherent in the romantic relationship between two (or more) beings. I don’t think I’ve ever told a story where a romantic relationship is the real driver of the drama. It may strike some people as odd given that I have written shows entitled The Wicker Husband and The Scarecrows Wedding. But for me it has never been the love story that has drawn me to these stories… When I think of The Wicker Husband I think of the struggle of self acceptance, when I think of The Scarecrows Wedding I think of grieving and loss and when I think of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button I think of time. Time and what we do with it. When I was first approached by Jethro Compton about being involved in the project, the thing which sparked that little spark for me was our perception of and relationship to ‘time’ and what that means for us as human beings. For me, my interest in the story began as a philosophical enquiry, almost an intellectual exercise into the nature of time itself. I would always hope that approaching stories in this way will hopefully lead to a deeper, more complex and human experience for the audience. After all, romantic relationships are only a part of our lives and they tend to reflect the deeper parts of ourselves that sometimes we’re afraid to look at. So with Benjamin Button I began with the idea of Time… Whilst for Jethro Compton (my collaborator) it began with the idea of Home… Coming at the story from these two different perspective has led me to a rather strange conclusion about writing collaborations…That starting on the same page is not necessarily always the best thing. If Jethro and I had both started from the same point then I think the show would have suffered for it. As it is, the collaboration thrived upon those two different ideas slowly moving to a central point and influencing each other upon the way. I think this manner of collaboration can lead to a richer storytelling palette. As long as the nature of the collaboration remains generous and understanding then I think it’s probably extremely healthy to approach a story from different points of view. After all, that’s what our audiences will be doing. Reacting to the story based on their own unique personal experiences. Now that I think about it, there are two particular songs in the show that dig at the heart of what the story is about for us. One is called ‘Home’ and one is called ‘Time’. These thoughts have come to me after spending a week down in Cornwall rehearsing with the company. Nights on the beach with fish and chips and curry, a bonfire under the stars and singing in Cornish around it. The things which one might think of as cliche, but as one of our astute company members pointed out. “Yes, very cliche… but strangely enough, something I’ve never done.” Sadly, our West End stages are currently dominated by American Imports, Juke Box musicals and Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh juggernauts, with just 6% being written by UK musical theatre career writers… So if you are planning on seeing a West End show, perhaps reconsider, come down to Southwark Playhouse and see a brand new UK musical set in Cornwall, performed by our extraordinary ensemble of actor musicians. It’s a fraction of the cost of a West End show and you’ll be right up close to the action. If you would like to come and see it then click on the link below and support new UK musical theatre by writers who really care about the medium. It's on from the 15th May through to the 8th June. If you are a twitter person please tweet about it. If you are an instagramer, please instagram. If everyone who reads this blog brought along 5 friends then we will be able to sell the run out. Book your tickets below: https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/show/the-curious-case-of-benjamin-button/ On Friday the 15th March, having locked Jasper Mountbatten III (my Ego), Derek Bluebottom (my depression) and Colin Shitsmearer (my envy) in a cupboard in my flat in Crystal Palace, I left to attend the UK Musical Theatre Conference 2019 at the Royal & Derngate in Northampton.
What I’m going to do here is not so much a description of the event itself but instead a collection of my thoughts on the “Conundrum of New Musical Theatre in the UK” as they coalesced throughout the day. As you may know, I spend the majority of my time writing new musicals, so the conference (organised by the extraordinary teams at Mercury Musical Developments and Musical Theatre Network) was an opportunity for me to step back and think more deeply about the practical problems and difficulties facing the industry today. The day was full of provocations, questions, opinions, conversations and ideas about the ecology of UK musical theatre. It was an opportunity to hear thoughts and challenges facing venues, artistic directors, independent producers, writers and performers. For me, as a UK MT Conference virgin, it was one of the first times that I’ve really had the opportunity to see all these factions represented so strongly and speaking so passionately about the medium. I know for a fact that it was a surprise to others at the conference that the various factions were represented so well. At one point I spoke to an Artistic Director who expressed a good deal of surprise when I told him: “Oh, there’s lots of writers here!” As if on cue, a panellist then asked for a show of hands to indicate how many writers were in the room. At least half the people in the room swiftly raised their hands. There is the possibility for conferences to be seen as paying lip service to change. They can often be a group of people from the same part of their particular industry wondering aloud in a vacuum about the things that must be done to change their industry. As a result they can often be ineffective and frustrating, enabling an industry to say that it is desirous of change without ever having to actually do anything about it. What was so good about this event was the vital presence of so many different roles within the industry. This meant that conversations and events from this conference could potentially lead to ACTUAL change. And believe me, if there is one thing that came across loud and clear from the event it is that change is both desired and required. I heard this from venues, directors, producers, the leaders of consortia and writers that musical theatre is something that they are deeply passionate about creating and promoting. I was in the room when this was stated over and over again by various panellists. In the revolutionary process, talk is very necessary, as is conversation and consultation. But it is also very easy to say that one is willing to change, quite another to actually change. There are a lot of actions being taken already, MMD and MTN work extremely hard behind the scenes promoting writers informally and formally in order to forward the cause of new musical theatre in this country. Events, opportunities and competitions are being set up as we speak to give voice to the now undeniable musical theatre talent in the UK. Some regional venues and producing companies are investing in programmes to develop new musical theatre and bring it to their audiences. A number of independent producers and directors are dedicated to advocating new musical theatre and they are getting work seen and actual productions on. These actions represent the beginnings of the long road to revolution… RISK & OPPORTUNITY One of the great things about the conference was that many writers I talked to throughout the day expressed a renewed appreciation for the difficulties that venues and producers face when it comes to creating new work. Being reminded of the challenges that venues face in the current economic climate is always sobering and important. As a writer who has been round the block a few times and has talked in depth with both independent producers and Artistic Directors this was not news to me nor many of my career artist colleagues, but it was great that a larger proportion of people were becoming aware of the challenges facing venues and producers. However, I would like to take this opportunity to remind us all that risk is by no means a one way street. Career musical theatre writers take risks every single day of their working lives. We make considerable sacrifices in order to write, in order that there will be ideas and shows created for theatres and audiences. We often spend years working on a musical before we see any financial recompense for that work and then it is usually vastly inadequate compared to the amount of time we spent working on them. Yes, producers take financial risk when they commission an idea but they are not the only ones risking a huge amount. A decent wage, a stable career, relationships, family time and social events are constantly being risked by writers in order to write. Don’t get me wrong. We do this willingly. Because we LOVE what we do. And because we love it we are willing to risk to do it. This is not an attack, it doesn’t change the difficult financial challenges facing venues, but I hope it puts the word RISK into a more realistic and useful context. This is something we all face together. So, back to the financials… Yes, there is indeed high risk in new musical theatre, this is well known. It’s an expensive business and sometimes it doesn’t pay off… But it’s my belief that the size of this risk is directly proportional to an outdated lack of TRANSPARENCY in our industry. TRANSPARENCY & EMOTIONAL INVESTMENT It is my belief that producer risk is connected deeply to audience development. If an audience doesn’t come to a show you will lose your investment. If it does come, you may make a small loss, you may break even, you may make some money, you may have a mega hit and never have to work again for the rest of your life. The point I want to make is that the long term development of high quality, meaningful & commercially viable musical theatre doesn’t HAVE to be as risky as everyone is making it out to be… If risk is connected to audience and risk is the crucial factor holding venues and producers back from developing more musical theatre (as would seem to be the case from panel discussions) then crucially we ALL need to think more about our audience. As a writer, I usually hear that phrase in relation to the subject matter of my work. We as writers constantly hear the phrase: “Think about your audience. Why are they going to want to come and see a musical about this?” I posit that in asking that question (and I’ve asked it several times myself) we are thinking about our audience in a naive, presumptuous and condescending manner. I would say that we don’t necessarily have to worry about whether our idea is going to appeal to an audience. Yes, that might be a part of it, but it’s not everything. I would argue that more important for developing audiences for new work is connecting those audiences in a meaningful way to the artists who are making it. You only have to look at XFactor or Britain’s Got Talent to see this system at work. Whilst talent plays a part, it is an audiences connection to a particular singer, it is the audiences emotional INVESTMENT in their story and their development that really drives that connection. When there is connection between artist development and audience then there is interest, opportunity and crucially, lowered RISK. A lot was said at the conference about musical theatre career artists being sidelined in favour of well known pop stars or playwrights. This is something we have been complaining about for years and the conference brought it into stark relief. Regardless of the argument about bringing fresh blood into the musical theatre writing pot, I seriously doubt that is the principal reason why they are commissioning well known pop writers to write their next musical. Otherwise, they would surely be happy to bring in new musical theatre writers. We are after all, fresh blood as well. We think that pop stars are given these opportunities because they are famous and successful. But actually the truth lies a bit deeper than that. Really they are famous and successful because they have cultivated a strong audience connection over time, their songs and careers have made their way into the fabric of the audience’s lives. The audience is invested in them. That is why their audiences go in droves to the work they are involved in. It doesn’t matter if it’s a pop concert or an autobiography or a musical. The audience are invested in the artist. As a result of this emotional investment by audiences, these writers bring with them considerably lowered risk. Lowered risk because of higher guaranteed AUDIENCE numbers. It’s simple economics. So the key question is this… How do we develop that same audience investment, that emotional attachment to the life and work of career musical theatre artists? After all, they are the ones driven by passion for the form. The ones who have dedicated their time and sacrificed so much to do it. The ones who know what they’re doing. The ones who have spent their lives devoted to this most collaborative of art forms and who are constantly being sidelined in favour of those with no experience in the medium. So who must we turn to? Who out of all of the representatives at the conference has access to an audience? The venues. Now, there seems to be this idea amongst the new musical theatre community that in order to help our industry to thrive in this country the first step is to produce more new musicals. I think that this is wrong. “What?!” I hear you shout. “String ‘em up boys!” Before you hang me out to dry, let me tell you why… There is one word (again used many times at the conference) which goes to the heart of the problem… TRUST A lot was said at the conference about TRUST regarding collaboration partners for co-productions. But more importantly, to effect real change in our industry the first and principal focus must be on the development of trust between venues, their audiences and crucially, WRITERS. Panellists talked articulately about how to build trust between collaborators, many examples were talked of about how trust was built, the conversation related mainly to how co-production relationships are cultivated. They are not leapt into blindly, they are tentative cautious affairs. And so surely the same principle must apply when it comes to building trust between venues, audiences and writers. If trust is built in small steps. Then surely that’s how we must approach it for the development of audiences for new musicals. In a relationship you don’t go straight to marriage. You go on a date. Prior to going on a date you might talk or message, it begins with a single word, or a glance. It begins so very very small. Small steps… So… venues. I don’t want you to produce my musicals. Not yet. I want you to invite me and people like me to develop our ideas in one of your rooms, inside your venue and the most important thing here: PLEASE DON’T HIDE US AWAY FROM YOUR AUDIENCES! Here’s a three step suggestion to get us all started: 1. Venues, invite a writing team in for a day or a week to work on a musical theatre idea we’re all interested in. No commitment from you to produce the thing to its final production. It doesn’t have to be a workshop or an R&D. It could just be a room with a piano in it where two or three writers will bash ideas out. The important thing is that it doesn’t have to be a big commitment from you. 2. TELL your audiences that we are there. Tweet, facebook, mail out. It won’t take much. Maybe one of the days is an open rehearsal room where audiences can visit, maybe there is a showing, maybe there is a talk. But it must be visible, publicised and prominent. 3. Writers, the burden cannot all be on the venues and producers. Unfortunately, beyond writing excellent work there is no escaping the fact that we live in a world which requires us to tell people about what we are doing. It may go against our nature to do it, but do it we must if we expect our audiences to come with us on the journey. When you are doing a new musical, it is so often the case that producers and venues wait until the season announcement before the public and audiences hear anything about it. By then it’s too late. Risk is already sky high. We have given the potential audience no time to get emotionally invested in the journey of the artists or the project, or the venue. We have given them no time to witness the struggles and defeats. Therefore how can we expect them to want to come along to this secret new musical? This is how it’s been done in the past but it is time to change the way in which venues, producers, artists and audiences relate to one another in UK Musical Theatre. We are living in a new age and we must adapt. The most powerful tool we have is our storytelling. And the skills of storytelling must be applied not only to the story of our shows but to the very act of creating new musical theatre itself. THE LONG TERM I’m talking a thirty year game changer here. Small investment now in artists and audiences will reap huge benefits in the future. Attach writers to venues, let them engage with your audiences, let the writers take their rightful place in the ecology of theatre, let them into your building. They are it’s beating heart, they are the lifeblood that fuels the entire industry and like a badly watered plant it will only take a little water for them to perk up once more and start filling the theatres with vibrant new musical theatre. Build trust between venues and writers and you will end up with strong work. Build trust between writers and audiences and you will end up with lowered risk. STRONGER WORK + LOWERED RISK = A healthier new musical theatre ecology for the UK. At the conference everybody made it clear that they want that. So lets do it. A huge thank you to all who attended the conference and especially to the wonderful teams at MMD and MTN without whom none of us would have a clue what we were doing. I try not to complain, I leave that to other facets of my personality: Derek Bluebottom (my depression), Jasper Mountbatter III (my ego) and Colin Shitsmearer (my envy). This frees me up to be a more positive influence on the world around me. Whilst the other bits of my personality are:
1. Wondering what the point of it all is (Derek) 2. Shouting incredibly loudly about how brilliant I am (Jasper) 3. On their way around to fellow composers/lyricists houses to break their fingers (Colin) I am able to spend some time alone in my flat wondering how I can contribute in a small way to the new musical theatre community in the UK. So today, whilst the rest of my personality is out and about, I thought I'd talk about something that goes right to the heart of one of the great challenges that UK Musical Theatre faces. Namely this: HOW ARE WE ABLE TO GET MORE MUSICAL THEATRE BY UK MUSICAL THEATRE WRITERS PRODUCED? "What a fascinating question!" I hear you say. "Why thank you!" I reply. Well in order to answer my question, I've done a little research... In 2019, The population of West End Musical Theatre looks like this: 9 x duke box musicals (built from a catalogue of pre-written songs) 1 x Sondheim (written by an American musical theatre legend) 10 x US Broadway musical theatre career artists (artists who've made their name through MT) 2 x Disney shows (who doesn't love Disney?) 3 x Andrew Lloyd Webber Shows (Unsurprising given that he owns a bunch of the theatres) 2 x Cameron Mackintosh Mega Hit (Les Miserables continues to run and Mary Poppins returns) Book of Mormon (I couldn't categorise this, written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone with Bobby Lopez - writer of Avenue Q) Only Fools and Horses: The Musical (by British writers who as far as I can tell are not career musical theatre writers) 2 x British Musicals written by pop stars/comedians/playwrights (Matilda and Everybody's Talking About Jamie) 2 British Musicals written by UK musical theatre career artists (SIX and Where is Peter Rabbit) PHEW! Very good work. What does any of that mean for us? Let's do some calculations shall we? Out of a total of 33 West End Musicals: 33% of West End Musicals are written by UK or European Writers 67% of West End Musicals are written by American or Canadian Writers 6% are by UK Musical Theatre Career Artists 30% are by Broadway Musical Theatre Career Artists So what's the headline? What's the big takeaway here... it's something I've long suspected... A mere 6% of West End Musicals in 2019 are by UK artists who have chosen the art of writing musical theatre as their career. As I mentioned I'm not here to complain about it, that's not the point of this post. The point is that clearly something needs to change. And I want to help make that change happen. First I suppose we need to understand why this has happened? Why are Broadway's career artists dominating the musical scene on our home turf. There are numerous reasons for this, historical, individual and difficult that I'm not going to go into as that's a much larger, longer and in-depth post and I don't have time before Derek, Jasper and Colin come back and start shouting at me... Suffice to say that Broadway producers regularly take risks on new musical theatre, audiences in New York embrace new musical theatre and there are a large number of highly lucrative financial awards that support career artists and help them develop their shows. The landscape of the West End is vastly different when it comes to new musical theatre, it has essentially become a home for Broadway transfers and Juke Box musicals (if you're looking for West End musical transfers to Broadway keep looking...) So how is the UK supposed to compete with the high quality shows that are coming from Broadway writers? The simple answer is... we can't. Unless we begin to change our game. There is one person who lies at the heart of this change... a single solitary soul... That person is... you guessed it... It's YOU you lucky ol' thing you! If you're reading this you're probably a fan of musical theatre, so you probably know about the big transfers coming into The West End this year, Dear Evan Hansen, Come From Away, Waitress etc. You might be less aware of the fact that there is actually a decent amount of new musical theatre being written by UK musical theatre writers, it's just that you won't see them on the West End stage. You'll have to look a little harder, to dig a little deeper, but they are there. London's fringe and the UK's regional theatre's are regularly producing new musical theatre by British artists. We are fortunate in that we have wonderful support communities for new writers such as the fantastic MMD Mercury Musical Developments and BML Book Music & Lyrics. Events like BEAM 2018 and the SIGNAL New Musical Theatre evenings curated by Adam Lenson at The Hospital Club prove beyond a doubt that there is huge talent lurking beneath the surface... But to make a show viable for the West End is an entirely different matter and it really comes down to audiences. If you can sell out a West End theatre then your show is a viable West End transfer. It's as simple as that. But it's difficult enough to sell out a small fringe venue for a three week run, let alone generate the audience power needed to sustain a West End commercial venue for six months. So to be perfectly frank, it's not really up to the producers, it's not up to the theatre's or the marketers... It's up to us as audience members. If we want a West End that is going to have more original British musical theatre on it's stages then we have to do everything we can to support the work of those writers whenever their work is produced on the Fringe. I recently announced a new production of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at The Southwark Playhouse. This is not based on the movie, but the original short story by F.Scott Fitzgerald. About 150 people liked that post (thanks guys!) And if all of those people came along to the show they'd sell out the theatre for an evening... So what would happen if each of those 150 people, brought 10 of their friends with them? Does that sound like an impossible task? I went to Wasted (a new musical by Chris Ash and Carl Miller) at Southwark last year and I brought 11 of my friends with me that night. It's not impossible, it takes a little bit of organisation but it's not difficult and we ended up having a brilliant evening with a brilliant show and hanging with out as mates. That would be more than a thousand people watching a new British musical for less than half the price that you would pay at a West End theatre with a far better view of the action. What's not to like? If we as audiences support the new work that is being made by UK career artists now then the producers will begin to notice it as well. So, if you want to see a change in the landscape of new musicals on the West End as much as I do, then there's now something you can do about it. Get your youth theatre together, get your amateur operatic society together, get your family and friends together and go and see a new British musical on the fringe or in the regional theatres. Let's start selling these bad boys out. I regularly tweet about the new shows that are appearing on the fringe and in the regions so look out for them and get yourself a posse. Ah, dear I can see Derek at the door looking incredibly miserable, the rest of my personalities are coming home so I better get the dinner on. I'll leave you to it Sunday! Disclaimer: Obviously not all shows are meant for the West End stage nor should they be, but some most certainly are and the only way we're going to get them there is by going to see them and bringing everybody we know with us. We've all been to a show and thought to ourselves. "Good lord. What a load of self-indulgent twaddle. Someone needs to take a chainsaw to that script." Self Indulgence is often thought of as a terrible thing, and surely that is very true. It often refers to a scene or a song which reveals that a writer is trying a bit too hard. It’s a show off, it patronises it’s audience and it outstays it’s welcome. But I’d like to make a case for the importance of self-indulgence in the life and craft of a writer. I would like to propose that there are (at least) three areas of your work where you can't over indulge... indeed it's almost essential to improvement in the craft of writing and I’m going to talk about them all over myself right on my very important and indulgent blog. DEDICATION Being a professional writer means dedicating yourself to it. It doesn’t mean starving yourself, or going on a bender to get “life experience”, it doesn’t mean driving yourself or those around you mad with insane habits, it doesn’t mean indulging in childish or prickish behaviour. You don’t have to be a dick to be good. The two things are completely unrelated to one another. If it so happens that there have been amazing writers who were also amazing knob ends, that’s by the by. The one does not preclude the other. In fact in many ways, we would probably find that the amazing knob ends became amazing writers in spite of (not because of) their total prickishness. What I mean by dedication is spending time learning about your craft, which basically means DOING it. Even if this is just ten minutes a day that still counts as dedication. I think dedication is demonstrated more by consistency and regularity than by quantity. It is possible to work full time in an unrelated field and still be dedicated to the art of writing, you still get to call yourself a writer as long as you can demonstrate consistent dedication to the art of writing. So indulge in the art of writing, be dedicated to it, that can only be a good thing. EMPATHY To write a real character you have to practise the art of empathy. People may disagree with me that empathy is something that you can practice, and I completely empathise with their disagreement. I think of empathy as basically putting yourself in someone else's shoes for a time, trying to see and feel all the things they might be feeling in a particular moment so that you can better understand their emotional situation and (if needs be) help them through it. I think it’s true that some people have a natural empathic inclination and that others have less natural ability, but I also think that (no matter where on the empathy scale you fall) if you want to be a writer, then you would do well to practise empathy whenever you can. Essentially, a writer needs to empathise with every single one of their characters. Especially when their characters have a personal history/views/opinions that are completely alien to that of the writer. The ability to step inside another persons heart and mind is the most important tool of the writer and is probably the least taught. Personally, I think the teaching of it is fairly simple. In that all you have to do is practice. To do it regularly until it becomes a habit. The best thing about empathy is that it’s one of those things that you can literally practise ALL the time. It doesn’t take time away from your other chores or passions, indeed you can even do it whilst on a date with your significant other and they need ever know your secret… the practice of empathy involves using your imagination to a large degree. Whenever you see someone in a particular emotional state, try and spend some time imagining yourself in their position. One thing’s for sure, it is empathy which gives us perspective. It shows us how our characters see the world, it teaches us how they interact with it. As a writer you can never be too empathetic. You’ll probably find that it improves other aspects of your life as well. TRAVEL To make our lives a little easier we surround ourselves with the familiar. We have friends who share our basic values and beliefs, we live in places that feel like home and we surround ourselves with things we know and understand. But it’s only when our values and beliefs are challenged that we really start to think about why we have them in the first place. Why are the things that are important to us actually important to us? Is it because they were important to our parents? Is it because it’s what our society says is right? For me, a value or belief is absolutely meaningless unless it is questioned. If it is worthwhile it will be able to withstand the rigours of interrogation, if it is not, it will fall by the wayside where it belongs. And there is nothing, absolutely nothing like travel to test your preconceptions and assumptions about the way the world should be. When we travel, we have the opportunity to practice cultural empathy on an epic scale. We have the opportunity to meet people who believe in something completely different to us, something completely alien. When our fundamental beliefs and core values are questioned we often feel like we are under personal attack and we put up defences to keep ourselves safe. But the walls that we erect are not keeping us safe from anything. Much like Mr-Donald-Fuck-Trump’s-Mexico-Will-Pay-For-It-Wall we are defending ourselves from an imaginary enemy. Our minds are fear-mongering. But the questioning is not there to destroy you. It’s there to make you stronger. So travel, question, allow yourself to be questions. Indulge yourself in that. |
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