What is The Crush Bar?
The Crush Bar is a weekly newsletter about emerging theatremakers written by me, Fergus Morgan, and published here on Substack. Usually, it is published on Friday morning, arriving straight into subscribers’ inboxes at 11.45am-ish.
Regular issues feature essays on contemporary theatre, interviews with emerging artists, and recommendations for shows to see. Every now and again, there is an international issue: a dispatch from a theatre festival, or an interview with a theatre artist based overseas. Around the Edinburgh Fringe, The Crush Bar mixes things up a bit. Sometimes, it hosts promotional content, too. And that is pretty much that.
What is Shouts And Murmurs?
As of January 2024, I am introducing a new email from The Crush Bar, one sent out only to paid supporters. It is called Shouts And Murmurs, it is sent out on Tuesdays, and it contains a round-up of the week’s best theatre content elsewhere - news, reviews, interviews, features, long-reads, Substacks, podcasts, and more.
If you would like to receive Shouts And Murmurs and are not yet a paid supporter, then you can become one via the button below. It costs either £5/month or £50/year - or a cup-and-a-half of coffee a month or a fairly crap West End theatre ticket a year.
And if you really, really, really want to get Shouts And Murmurs, but can’t afford the monthly fee, then just let me know by email, and I can make that happen, no problem.
Who is Fergus Morgan?
I am Fergus Morgan. I’m a freelance arts journalist and critic specialising in theatre. As well as publishing The Crush Bar, I write regularly for The Stage, The Financial Times, The Independent, The Evening Standard, and others. My stuff has also appeared in The Scotsman, TimeOut, WhatsOnStage, Vice, and elsewhere.
I’m a member of the UK Critics Circle. I was shortlisted for the Allen Wright Award at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019. I was born and raised in Suffolk originally, went to the University of Oxford, then lived in London, and now live in Edinburgh.
My email is fergusmorgan@hotmail.co.uk if you need it. You can find me on BlueSky as @FergusMorgan, too. And you can visit my website using the button below.
How can I support The Crush Bar?
Well, thanks for asking. The Crush Bar takes up quite a bit of my time and is – and will always be – totally free to read. I do need a bit of support to keep it going, though, and there are a few different ways you can do that:
1) You can become a paid supporter. Chances are, if you’re reading this, you are already a free subscriber and already get The Crush Bar in your inbox every Friday. If you want, you can become a paid supporter via the button below.
From January 2024, paid supporters will now be getting one extra email a month - Shouts and Murmurs, sent out on Tuesdays. See above for more details a month. You can become a paid supporter for £5 a month, or £50 a year if you want.
2) You can make a one-off donation. For a while, I used the platform Ko-Fi to accept donations to support The Crush Bar. In order to keep everything in one place, I have stopped those donations. when I launched the paid supporter model here. If, though, you’d rather make a one-off donation, instead of becoming a paid supporter, then you can do so via Ko-Fi. It is pretty straightforward. Just hit the button below.
3) You can share The Crush Bar. I started The this newsletter in 2020 with no subscribers. As of December 2024 it has over 3500 subscribers. It has got there through people sharing it far and wide – and that really means a lot to me.
Tell your friends about it. Tweet about it. Forward the issues to anyone that might be interested and encourage them to subscribe, too. That would be brilliant. In fact, you can share The Crush Bar right now using the button below.
4) You can promote with The Crush Bar. As I explained above, The Crush Bar does include promotional content sometimes. It is relevant to subscribers’ interests and I never take money off people that can’t afford it – but it does help keep all this going.
If you are interested in using The Crush Bar to promote something – a show, a season, a service, whatever – then have a look at the information sheet below, or feel free to get in touch with me directly via email. That’s fergusmorgan@hotmail.co.uk, again.
