What is The Crush Bar?
The Crush Bar is a weekly newsletter about emerging theatremakers written by me, Fergus Morgan, and published via Substack on Friday mornings.
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 publishes 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 (mostly) for paid supporters of the newsletter. 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.
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.
How can I support The Crush Bar?
Thanks for asking. There are several ways you can support The Crush Bar.
You can become a paid supporter. Paid supporters get one extra email a week: Shouts and Murmurs, sent out on Tuesdays - see above for details - plus full access to The Crush Bar’s chat, which I might do something interesting with one day. You can become a paid supporter for £5 a month or £50 a year via the button below.
You can become a champion of The Crush Bar. Introduced in April 2025, this is essentially a higher-tier subscription aimed at organisations. It costs £250/year and it gets you all the benefits of being a paid supporter, plus the option of having your name, or your organisation’s name, included both on a special page on The Crush Bar’s website and in the footer of every issue of The Crush Bar.
You can share The Crush Bar. I started The Crush Bar newsletter in 2020 with no subscribers. As of April 2025 it has over 4000 subscribers. It has got there through people like you sharing it far and wide – and that really means a lot to me.
Tell your friends about it. Post about it. Forward the issues to anyone that might be interested and encourage them to subscribe, too. That would be brilliant.
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.
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.
