Only yesterday I was bemoaning the lack of developmental opportunities for musicals in this country here. “The only way that musical theatre writers can grow is by practicising their craft, and having shows actually put on — not just written and maybe read in a workshop,” I reflected – the kind, I could have added, that is invariably entire self-promoted. If you write a new musical, you’re basically on your own, in every sense – even though this is, famously, a genre whose successes are the results of collaboration. But musical theatre writers often have to become their own producers, up to and including the West End, as I pointed out was the case for Kath Gotts with Bad Girls – the Musical.
I neglected to mention yesterday the Perfect Pitch festival that is taking place for the second year next month at Highgate’s Upstairs at the Gatehouse (from October 16-28)….[continue by clicking below]
That is basically an umbrella to offer writers the chance to showcase their work to both the industry and the public under, which makes it a public version of the workshop structure that is the first – and all too often, the last – stage many new musicals go through.
But meeting Andy Barnes last night, the young producer behind Perfect Pitch who has made this festival a personal labour of love and co-ordinates all the shows within its embrace, I discovered that this festival is only the public face of a more determined private process to broker relationships between writers of new musicals and the kind of partners – from drama schools to professional theatres – that could play a part in providing the conditions for musicals to evolve out of.
The key to it is an acknowledgement that a workshop is only a public beginning of the process – but there’s also work to be done both before and after that happens. Authors, working in a vacuum, might think that what they’ve created in their artistic garrets is a finished work; but as even Sondheim once sagely noted, “musicals aren’t written – they’re re-written”, and musicals need space for that growth to take place in.
The best British musical of the last decade, Jerry Springer – the Opera, evolved out of a BAC Scratch Night in which its composer simply sang the songs on a piano himself; and it then went through various processes of workshop productions at BAC and a concert staging at the Edinburgh Fringe before it finally received a full production at the National Theatre. Key to that success is that much of this development took place in the public eye; musical creators will often tell you that it is not until a show is placed before the theatregoing public that they discover what’s right – and what’s wrong – with their show. By the time a show hits West End previews, though, it may be too late to fix it. The work needs to be done far earlier in the day.
Perfect Pitch sounds to me like it might provide the perfect starting point for shows to begin their public pitch for a fuller life from. For more details on the festival, visit http://www.perfectpitchmusicals.com
As a non-fan of most musicals I was enticed (partly by your comments) to try my luck at the Finborough for the first time to see When Midnight Strikes and thought it was great. Any word of a transfer to a bigger theatre that would really do it justice? I do hope that a show of this quality doesn't just end for ever this Saturday.