Five years of The Crush Bar. Twelve weeks without it.
Should I stop writing about theatre? What shows should you see while I am away? Do you have any recommendations for South East Asia? All that and more in this week's Shouts and Murmurs.
Hello, and welcome to Shouts and Murmurs, a weekly round-up of theatre news, reviews, interviews and more from The Crush Bar, written by Fergus Morgan.
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Previously in The Crush Bar:
I totally forgot that New Year’s Day marked five years since I started publishing The Crush Bar.
That’s right. The first issue of this newsletter was sent out to 283 subscribers on January 1, 2021. It was an interview with Grace Gallagher, co-founder of Liverpool-based clowning company Ugly Bucket Theatre, who are still doing cool stuff.
Since then, there have been, I think, 266 more issues. There are now 5000 subscribers, some of whom are sympathetic or stupid enough to pay me. I am not sure what story these statistics tell. A tale of sustained journalistic brilliance? A fable about foolish perseverance? A tragedy? A comedy? A history? A problem play? Who knows? All I know is that received Substack wisdom tells me it is a good idea to acknowledge these milestones, so that is what I am belatedly doing. Happy Birthday to The Crush Bar. Crikey. I have just realised that my nephew-in-law is younger than this newsletter.
Anyway, the important thing I have to tell you today is that, after Friday’s newsletter, which will feature an interview with the director Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu about Deep Azure, there are going to be no issues of The Crush Bar for quite a while. That is because my wife and I are off travelling around South East Asia. That’s right. We are going to find ourselves. Hopefully I don’t turn out to be a real clown. Hahahahaha.
But, Fergus, I am a total legend and therefore a paid supporter of your newsletter. What does that mean for me? Well, firstly, thanks, and thanks for asking. Secondly, I am going to pause all payments while I am away, then restart them when I start publishing again in April. Hopefully it will go smoothly. I’ve done it before, while I was making my celebrated podcast about Scottish theatre, and it went fine.
But, Fergus, how can I replace my bi-weekly dose of glib theatrical commentary while you are washing elephants? Well, there is no substitute for The Real McCoy, I’m afraid. When it comes to Substack, though, I shall once again point you towards Exeunt, Natasha Tripney’s Café Europa, Nancy Durrant’s The London Culture Edit, Lauren Halvorsen’s Nothing For The Group, Kate Wyver’s Queer Theatre Archive, and a bunch of other newsletters you can find here. And, if you are after Scottish stuff, the good people of The Stage should still have you covered in my absence.
But, Fergus, I can’t live without your insight for long. Do you promise you are coming back? I don’t know what to tell you, kid. I have no plans to move to Thailand. I probably will keep writing about theatre on my return. But I would be lying if the thought had not crossed my mind that the awe-inspiring, heavily over-touristed islands of Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay might prompt a professional revelation or two. I’ve been at this game for a while now. Sometimes, I love it. Sometimes, I hate it. Increasingly, as when that Sunday In The Park With George revival starring Jonathan Bailey and Ariana Grande at the Barbican was announced last week, I feel like this…
Or like this Charles Addams cartoon, entitled Uncle Fester Laughing In The Theatre, which I found in a piece by AN Wilson about Hamnet that you do not need to read.
Couple those feelings with the fact that my freelance existence is experiencing minor turbulence with The Stage’s evolution from weekly paper to monthly magazine, and I wonder if it is time for me to follow in Matt Trueman’s footsteps, hang up my pen, and wangle a cushy associate job with a commercial producer? I wish! I don’t know any commercial producers! Commercial producers, if you’re reading this, consider it a come-and-get-me plea! Failing that, is it time for me to get some sort of… real job?
Perhaps. Perhaps not. I am wary of committing to anything for fear of humiliation when I return with no revelation more significant than I quite like pad thai.
Over the weekend, I was at Pitlochry Festival Theatre for the inaugural, inspiring Out In The Hills festival, where I saw Ian McKellen do a good reading of a bad play and Alan Cumming “mercilessly probe” - his words, hohoho - Graham Norton. I was struck by something Norton said about not feeling like he was doing anything remotely close to what he wanted career-wise until he was 33. ‘Thirty-three?!’ I thought. ‘Great! I’m only 31 and I am at least kind of doing something I occasionally enjoy! What am I worried about?’ That, aside from the fact that Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s audience seems to have got a lot younger and a lot gayer, which is cool, was my main takeaway from the weekend. It’s a long life. Stuff happens. Calm down.
For now, then, let’s just sing one more chorus of Happy Birthday to this newsletter. I will see you on Friday. After that, I will see you in April. Or will I? Who knows?
Oh, one last thing. I also saw Indian Ink at Hampstead Theatre last week, which I thought was a virtuosic contemplation of love, art and empire. The Hampstead is onto a good thing with these Tom Stoppard revivals. I would urge you to see it if you get the chance. I found a quote, projected onto the wall of the theatre, particularly poignant in light of Stoppard’s recent death, and I thought you might like to see it.
In other news: a Frank Sinatra musical will open in the West End this summer; Edinburgh Horror Festival will not take place this year; Stornoway’s An Lanntair is worried about its council funding; we are all doomed; a touring company has been inexplicably barred from the US; veteran critic Blanche Marvin has died at 100; Michael Sheen’s Welsh National Theatre has got a grant from a fund sustained by royalties from The Mousetrap; there was no support for the National Theatre of Scotland in the Scottish budget but there was £2.5m for the King’s Theatre; Deborah Warner has been appointed artistic director of NYC’s Park Avenue Armory; The Stage Awards happened; the Olivier Awards will get a primetime BBC broadcast; the NT has announced casts for Summerfolk and Pride; the RSC has announced casting for its touring Hamlet; Ivo Van Hove’s All My Sons will be broadcast by NT Live; The Fear Of 13 will run on Broadway; I want to read Romeo and Juliet and Godzilla; French tech firm Mistral has used AI to create a new play by Moliere about astrologers.
