Shouts and Murmurs - January 14, 2025
Summerhall should be back this summer but plenty of questions remain. At least the West End is doing well. Plus: a reviews round-up and lots more lovely links, paywall-free this week.
Hello, and welcome to Shouts And Murmurs, a weekly email for paid supporters of The Crush Bar, written by me, Fergus Morgan.
Every week, I round up the best theatre writing elsewhere - news, reviews, interviews, opinion pieces, long-reads - plus any other interesting or inspiring theatre stuff I find.
You can usually only read the top section for free, but have to pay if you want to read everything on the other side of the paywall. It costs a mere £5/month or £50/year. This week, though, I have removed the paywall, so free subscribers can see what they are missing.
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Previously in The Crush Bar:
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe opened its registration window yesterday – but dozens of questions still surround this August’s event.
Who will be in charge of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society after its current chief executive Shona McCarthy steps down this spring? Will they have any bright ideas on improving accessibility and, more importantly, on eradicating those awful silent disco tours? What effect will Edinburgh’s new tourist tax – set to be voted through next Friday – have on the festival’s eye-watering accommodation prices? And does that matter when Edinburgh Council desperately needs the cash to keep the city going?
At least the sorry Summerhall saga concluded this week, or the latest chapter of it did: HMRC have withdrawn their winding up petition against operators Summerhall Management over unpaid tax, all artists owed money have now been paid, and new, separate charity – confusing, eh? – Summerhall Arts has announced that it plans to run a festival this summer and hopes to sign a lease for three more years, too. Anyone else reminded of Jurassic Park II? It is “a thrilling opportunity to push boundaries and provide a platform for both emerging and established artists,” said Summerhall Arts chief executive Sam Gough. And, honestly, this time we really have fixed the fences.
So many questions remain. Why was the petition withdrawn? What measures have been put in place so that this never happens again? Will anyone still want to perform at Summerhall after all this anyway? And, longer term, what does the venue’s year-round future look like under new owners AMA Homes? Exactly how many student flats does a “mixed-use” Summerhall contain? We will know a bit more by the end of this month, when Summerhall Arts, and many other organisations, learn whether or not they have been successful in securing regular funding from Creative Scotland.
Another question: is the West End an over-expensive and moribund wasteland of unimaginative movie-to-musical adaptations and celebrities, or thriving like never before? Historian and columnist AN Wilson thinks the former in The Times - a paper that, ironically, misused the word “wherefore” in an bit about the lack of Shakespeare on the Scottish curriculum this week - but thinks the only answer is for shows to “be good not shit.” Lyn Gardner and the facts suggest otherwise in The Stage:
“Writing theatre’s obituary based on misinformation or dismissing the entire art form as a turn-off on the basis of a single theatre visit (nobody writes off all literature because they didn’t enjoy Pride and Prejudice when they read it aged 17) is easy pickings, but is damaging when so regularly repeated. UK theatre, particularly regional theatre, faces many challenges, but after the huge difficulties created by Covid, the West End is very much on the up and, as an excellently researched piece in the Financial Times observed earlier in the month, it is on a roll, while on Broadway, attendance remains below pre-pandemic levels. The result? London is “seen as a crucible for fresh, risk-taking work, while Broadway risks becoming a home to unadventurous revivals, Hollywood spin-offs or celebrity casting.”
It takes a lot for Lyn Gardner to go into bat for commercial producers like Andrew Lloyd Webber, but a Times columnist whinging about Sigourney Weaver will do it.
I actually have some sympathy with AN Wilson’s piece: the West End is too expensive - the widely touted average ticket price of £60 is not the slam-dunk everyone seems to think it is - and the relentless stream of screen-to-stage adaptation is depressing and Tom Hiddleston does seem unbearable. But, hey, Cameron Mackintosh is making money and a culture that can sustain a 12-week run for a European director’s take on a French memoir with an all-female cast can’t be all bad. I feel an uncomfortable and rare sense of national pride that the West End is doing better than Broadway, too. Let’s hope it can last until Trump’s tanks start rolling down Shaftesbury Avenue.
In other news: we do not deserve Michael Sheen, who has put his own money into a new Welsh National Theatre; Labour has launched a public consultation on dynamic ticket pricing and ticket touts; Graeae is running a festival for deaf, disabled and neurodivergent playwrights in London later this month; Anthony Simpson-Pike will be the new artistic director of Theatre503; Imelda Staunton and Dominic Cooke will reunite for Mrs Warren’s Profession in the West End in May; Stereophonic is coming.
The week in reviews: Titanique, The Maids, and Tarantula
Tye Blue, Marla Mindelle and Constantine Rousouli’s Titanique - a cabaret-style jukebox musical parody of the James Cameron movie featuring the music of Celine Dion that originated in Los Angeles in 2017 - has done what its nautical namesake never managed and made it all the way across the Atlantic. A couple of critics were totally swept away by the silliness - The Times’ Clive Davis and LondonTheatre’s Olivia Rook both gave it five stars - but most offered qualified praise for everything but Lauren Drew’s powerhouse performance as the Canadian superstar, and Layton Williams’ turn as Tina Turner/the iceberg. It is the first big show of the year, and it sounds like fun, so a few critics found room on the door for an extra star: it gets four from The FT, The Evening Standard, and WhatsOnStage, and three from the rest.
“Drew’s winningly affectionate portrayal deploys kooky charm, the infectious energy of a golden labrador on an autumn walk, and a voice that could de-ice a plane. By the time she leads the whole audience in a chorus of the imperishable lead song, you’d need a heart like an iceberg to resist.”
Annie Kershaw’s staging of Jean Genet’s darkly absurdist, erotically charged play The Maids - as translated by Martin Crimp - at the mini-but-increasingly-mighty Jermyn Street Theatre has got four stars from The Stage’s Dave Fargnoli, The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar, and The Telegraph’s Nick Ferris. Anna Popplewell and Charlie Oscar impress as Claire and Solange, two maids who sadistically roleplay the murder of their mistress, then actually do it, as does Carla Harrison-Hodge as their victim. Only The Times’ Clive Davis and The Evening Standard’s Nick Curtis were not so keen.
“Staging a story with such complicated, illusory feelings would be a daunting prospect for any company, but there’s a tightness to the cast here, and their chemistry ultimately sees the action spin into a masterly tour de force.”
And, at the Arcola Theatre, Philip Ridley’s new play Tarantula characteristically mixes the mundane and the mysterious in its story of a teenage girl suffering from shock after a brutal moment of gang violence, and Wiebke Green’s stylish, unsettling production features a terrific performance from Georgie Henley: it gets four stars from The Stage’s Tom Wicker, The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar, and TimeOut’s Anya Ryan.
“In Tarantula, the prolific Ridley is in his prime. Toni’s story blends roaring humour with shocking horror – and yet, we’re never quite certain where this excruciating tale will go… What an agonising portrait of terror, that leaves both Henley and the audience gasping for breath.”
Next week: Oliver! in the West End; Revenge: After The Levoyah at the Yard Theatre; Kyoto at @SohoPlace; The Lonely Londoners at the Kiln Theatre.
The week in interviews: John Douglas Thompson, Indira Varma, Alan Menken, and Joes Douglas and Robertson.
“I see him as the voice of Shakespeare himself. I feel Shakespeare siding with the oppressed and the marginalised through him.” I chatted to lauded American actor John Douglas Thompson for The Stage ahead of him playing Shylock in Theatre For A New Audience’s production of The Merchant Of Venice in Edinburgh.
“I’d love opportunities on screen that I get on stage.” Ahead of appearing alongside Rami Malek in another Oedipus - this one written by Ella Hickson - at the Old Vic, Indira Varma has spoken to Laura Pullman in The Times. The quality of roles actors get in theatre, as opposed to film and television, is an under-reported reason many of them return to the stage. Well, it’s definitely not the money, is it?
“To me, putting more and more effort into something that constantly crashes against indifference or incomprehension is pointless.” Legendary composer Alan Menken has been interviewed by The Times’ chief culture writer Richard Morrison. He has a one-man show and the Disney musical Hercules arriving in London soon.
“Can we, collectively as an audience, take a step towards somebody who we don’t like and who we disagree with?” As the RSC production of their acclaimed drama Kyoto arrives in the West End, Joes Douglas and Robertson, the duo behind Good Chance Theatre and The Jungle, have chatted to The FT’s Sarah Hemming.
Further reading: Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, the state of musical theatre, the stage history of Sophocles’ Elektra, and more…
"What other playwright can claim to have had their work mentioned by both an MP and a judge within the same week?” The Stage revealed its annual list of the 100 most powerful people in the performing arts industry last week. It is a fairly arbitrary affair but I like that it was topped by a playwright, James Graham, this year.
“The traditional three-year, degree-based drama training model has been under severe strain for years.” Also in The Stage, editor Alistair Smith has written about Bristol Old Vic Theatre School’s decision to scrap its undergraduate courses, and how it is part of a wider crisis facing drama schools caused by years of underfunding, increased bureaucracy, and rising costs, including national insurance hikes.
“Arguably the most exciting parts of 2024 was not new shows, but instead the development of new musical theatre departments dedicated to the art form.” WhatsOnStage editor Alex Wood has surveyed the state of musical theatre.
“The programme only works if you empower the local culture and give it longevity, give it the potential for it to grow into something bigger.” Liam Kelly has looked into the troubled history of the UK City of Culture scheme - including the disaster of Coventry in 2021 - in The Telegraph, as Bradford begins its year in the spotlight.
“This is a play that combines formal perfection, profound passion, scrupulous fairness and sharp irony” Michael Billington has surveyed the stage history of Sophocles’ Elektra in The Guardian ahead of Brie Larson taking on the role in the West End; while The Times’ Patrick Kidd has written a cheat sheet for Greek tragedies, given how many of them are being seen on London stages at the moment.
“My skin crawls at the thought of the lines or scenes in scripts that will be removed or rewritten because of the thought, “Will the audience be able to handle that?”” In American Theatre, Kelundra Smith has made a plea for American theatres to take risks during the descent into fascism that will take place over the next four years.
“London theatre, with its longer and quite different history, appears to have a greater tolerance for stylistic extremes.” New York Times critic Jesse Green has investigated the recent trend of shows getting rave reviews in London, then flopping on Broadway: Tammy Faye, Sunset Boulevard, Back To The Future, Cabaret.
That’s all for this issue of Shouts And Murmurs. Thanks for reading and for supporting this newsletter. I’ll be back in your inboxes on Friday with an interview with Ebenezer Bamgboye, director of The Lonely Londoners, which opens at the Kiln Theatre later this week.
If you want to get in touch with me about anything at all, just reply to this newsletter, email me at fergusmorgan@hotmail.co.uk, or find me on BlueSky, where I’m @fergusmorgan.
Have a good week.
Fergus