Following on from the corporate takeover of Broadway and West End producing models that I just wrote about, it’s inevitable that there’s now a generic feel to the worldwide theatrical high street, too. I’m currently in Chicago, North America’s second city in terms of things theatrical outside of New York, and it’s striking to find that the commercial theatre here is full of shows that have come from Broadway – or, in the case of Spamalot that had its try-out here before going to Broadway, is now back in a touring version. So is a tour of the Broadway one-woman play about Golda Meir, Golda’s Balcony.
There are also “sit-down” or resident productions (as they call productions that set up home in particular cities) of Wicked, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and the long-running off-Broadway phenomenon Blue Man Group; with another, pre-Broadway production, of the latest from the Les Mis and Miss Saigon team of Boublil and Schonberg (but without Cameron Mackintosh above the title as producer for the first time), The Pirate Queen, also lining up to begin performance in October.
Of course, the big commercial attractions, whether in the West End, on Broadway or here in Chicago, do not provide the whole picture of each of those cities’ theatrical health; and Time Out’s Chicago version runs to no less than six pages of theatre listings (a total of over 90 individual entries), including such internationally renowned producing houses as the Goodman and Steppenwolf upping the ante.
So things are not entirely homogenised just yet in Chicago, but even so, the ones that you actually hear about – at least in terms of dollar spend on advertising around town – are indeed those big commercial shows. It hardly sets the pulse racing…. or provides a theatrical pulse to the city.
