The regions have always been a fertile training ground for actors, directors and stage managers, but most especially for theatre producers who – from Cameron Mackintosh and Bill Kenwright to Paul Elliot and Duncan Weldon – have learnt their business by putting the show on the road. But more than that, touring is a serious business that not only keeps the cogs of the British theatre wheel turning, taking theatre to places that don’t make their own but have receiving houses that want more than tribute bands and comics, but also offers young(er) producers a business model that makes them actually welcome rather than seeks to rip them off.
Rather than paying £20,000 a week just for a canopy in the West End – plus the extortionate other range of costs that the so-called prestige of appearing there incurs – the reverse roles of supply and demand apply on the road, where the theatres are happy of the product and like to keep their doors open, so they often offer guarantees that are sufficient to make sure that the producer can at least cover his payroll. The product also tours without being subjected to the same critical scrutiny that it might get in the West End – though there are local critics, their impact is not as potentially severe as a London mob baying for blood.
On the road, different commercial and critical imperatives apply: product needs to be sold on the strength of branding and name value, since there’s not enough time to establish reputation or word-of-mouth alone across a single playing week. No wonder the titles of touring plays and musicals, as well as the faces of their casts, often have a familiar feel: they give audiences something to relate to.
All of these thoughts occurred to me last night while watching a new touring stage version of Strangers on a Train, adapted from the Patricia Highsmith novel that is best known as a 1951 Hitchcock film, and features a cast that includes Alex Ferns (EastEnders), Will Throp (Casualty, Strictly Come Dancing), Colin Baker (one-time Dr Who), Leah Bracknell (Emmerdale) and Anita Harris. Declaration of interest: I’ve known producer Kenny Wax for years – since he was a runner at West End ad agency Dewynters in the late 80s — but it’s been fascinating watching him build his business steadily and craftily. Yes, there have been missteps along the way, as over-ambition has inevitably taken its toll – an ill-fated original West End musical Maddie and a premature revival of Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things, among them – but he’s now found a serious niche, and established a real business, in the touring market, putting high quality shows on the road with a big recognition factor.
Hence, he’s toured star casts in Arsenic and Old Lace and a stage version of Rosamunde Pilcher’s The Shell Seekers; these are so successful he’s about to take them out for a second and third tour, respectively. He’s also got tours going out of children’s properties, The Gruffalo and Stuart Little. He clearly doesn’t need the West End; but maybe the West End, in fact, needs him.
