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Post by danb on Feb 16, 2021 18:34:58 GMT
There are plenty of all of them. They just don’t get noticed as the same old people get used for everything.
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2,812 posts
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Post by couldileaveyou on Feb 16, 2021 18:37:27 GMT
There are plenty of all of them. They just don’t get noticed as the same old people get used for everything. And the West End is plagued with jukebox musicals |
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1,210 posts
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 16, 2021 19:40:53 GMT
The Clockmakers Daughter was one of the best new shows I’ve seen for years.
What happened to them? The composers are out there!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2021 8:13:33 GMT
The problem isn't a lack of talent or investment, it's the disparity between the high end production teams (Cameron Macintosh, Disney, Sonia Freedman et al.) and those starting out. It's effectively a class war and the upper class have the upper hand.
With the exception of hardcore theatre fans, British audiences are incredibly fickle and these days generally only go for what they know/have been told about.
The likes of Aria & Emma Rice's Wise Children et al are working hard but its a hard battle for commercial success against the behemoth well known.
Gone are the days of regular evenings out to theatre to take in a show. TV's taken that role of entertainment. It's an event now, an infrequent treat, so audiences swarm en masse to familiarity, be it names they know, shows they've seen before, heard about, or "that one off the telly".
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2,564 posts
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Post by viserys on Feb 17, 2021 8:29:56 GMT
My guess is also that far fewer young people strive to be musical composers these days than in the "grand old days" - I think the last time that musicals truly penetrated the mainstream was the early 70s with stuff like Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar and Rocky Horror Show.
And those few who still do write musical theatre just don't have a gift for catchy tunes anymore with a few exceptions. But for example I loved both "Romantics Anonymous" and "The Grinning Man" live on stage, but I can't remember a single song from them and haven't had any desire to just listen to them.
Of course there are exceptions and maybe the new talented generation like Lin-Manuel Miranda and Toby Marlow/Lucy Moss who've succeeded in combining temporary pop music with musical theatre will inspire more people again. Both Hamilton and Six seem to be the first shows since those shows of the 70s that truly breached the gap again. And you first need to get a few big songs out there in the mainstream before people will buy tickets to a show. "Evita" and "Cats" shift millions of tickets based on the strength of the two world hits "Don't cry for me Argentina" and "Memory" alone, just like kids enter the Victoria Palace Theatre now knowing the entire Hamilton soundtrack by heart.
It's also why I can't blame people preferring jukebox musicals full of truly good music or a revival. Most of today's new musicals leave me cold musically and while I appreciate Hamilton and Six for what they have achieved, I can't say I listen to them much. When I watched the "Greatest Musicals" concert the other day, I was moved by exactly three oldies: Dancing Queen, Any Dream Will Do and I dreamed a dream, but used the DEH segment for a potty break.
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Post by FairyGodmother on Feb 17, 2021 12:22:37 GMT
The problem isn't a lack of talent or investment, it's the disparity between the high end production teams (Cameron Macintosh, Disney, Sonia Freedman et al.) and those starting out. It's effectively a class war and the upper class have the upper hand. Yes, ALW having his own theatre to try stuff out in wasn't going to hurt was it?! Perhaps university societies, or am-dram groups with original musicals are where to look? But I don't know if many people can put the time and effort that established people can into writing a full musical. ALW moved his orchestrator in over lockdown to get Cinderella ready! With just a piano and singers, you can have good songs, but it would be much harder to work it into a full musical without somebody who is specifically good at that. SiX is interesting. I loved it when I saw it at the Fringe, it was such fun night out, and I thought it was really clever. But we all said we enjoyed "the Avril Lavigne one", or "the one that sounded a bit like Adele" — we didn't treat it as a new 'proper' musical at all, more like Showstoppers or something. Even now (potentially unpopular opinions coming up!), it's still a collection of songs and reprises. I really enjoy it, but I think it's far easier to write something like that than to do all the underscoring and character motifs etc and interweaving that the mega-musicals have. The concert format is also very clever, because it means you don't need to worry about scenery. |
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