Shouts and Murmurs - November 26, 2024
Black Friday is here and the theatre industry is offering our governments a spectacularly good deal. Almost as good as the one I am currently offering you to become a paid supporter of The Crush Bar.
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.
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Previously in The Crush Bar:
Black Friday is upon us, and the theatre industry is offering a sensational deal to our governments.
This week, the grim orgy of consumer capitalism that is Black Friday will arrive again. My partner and I have made a list of stuff we want for the flat. Some new bedsheets. A shelf for the spare room. A cushion for a vacant cushion cover. I have my own list, too. A new woolly hat as I somehow managed to lose mine during the coldest week of the year. A new pair of running trainers. One of those surprisingly capacious Uniqlo bags.
For the theatrically inclined, there are a number of deals available. Both TodayTix and London Theatre Direct are running discounts, collectively covering most of the West End. TimeOut’s Andrzej Lukowski has summarised them here. Plenty of individual theatres are doing similarly. And, hey, there are even discounts to be had right here on Substack. You can currently subscribe to both Exeunt Magazine and Natasha Tripney’s Café Europa for just £4/month, and you can become a paid supporter of The Crush Bar for the same amount. Go on, help re-establish a culture of online theatre criticism by subscribing to at least one of them - or, better yet, all three.
By far the best deal open to anyone, though, is the chance our governments have to invest in the theatre industry. I am a reluctant advocate of the economic argument for the arts - the value of culture cannot be quantified in dollars and cents alone, man - but the numbers really do add up. In September, The Financial Times reported that they creative industries were worth £125 billion to the UK economy, and employed around 2.3 million people: Peter Bazalgette, chair of the Creative Industries Council, said the sector was “worth the higher investment.” Last week, ArtsProfessional reported the finding that for every pound of funding it received, Chichester Festival Theatre produced £141 of economic activity. And yesterday, it was reported that of Wicked had earned $164.2 million globally over its first weekend, making it the most lucrative opening of a movie adaptation of a Broadway musical in history.
Investing in culture is clearly one hell of a good deal for governments, but one that successive administrations in Westminster and the devolved nations have continually missed out on. Rachel Reeves was the latest to overlook an open goal: her first budget was widely criticised in the House of Lords last week for a lack of meaningful support for the arts, with one peer somewhat weirdly labelling it an “elephant trap.”
Next up to the plate is the Scottish Government, which will announce its spending plans for 2025/26 next Wednesday. It has previously pledged to up culture spending by £25 million in this budget, but the Scottish government has a track record of employing imaginative mathematics to fulfil its promises. Scotland’s creative industries employ 70,000 people across 15,000 businesses and contribute more than £5 billion to Scotland’s economy, yet currently receive only 0.56% of the Scottish government’s annual spend. Playwright Rona Munro and actor Bill Paterson were among leading Scottish cultural figures to back the #InvestInCulture campaign calling on the Scottish government to be true to their word last week. Let’s hope, once more, that first minister John Swinney and finance secretary Shona Robison listen.
In recent years, companies have extended their Black Friday bonanzas from one day, to one weekend, to several weeks of discounted deals. The theatre industry - and the wider culture sector - is currently running an incredible offer, but one that is available for a limited time only, as who knows how long there will be theatres left to offer it?
In other news: the Edinburgh Fringe has published its annual review and Shona McCarthy has called the Summerhall situation “absolutely horrific”; a new theatre is opening in Haggerston; Mark Rosenblatt’s Giant will transfer from the Royal Court to the West End; The Comedy About Spies will open in the West End in April; the National Theatre of Scotland has announced a new show about a literary hoax and a new show about brass bands; Frantic Assembly is staging Anna Jordan’s new play Lost Atoms; Tammy Faye is closing early on Broadway; Joe Murphy is the new AD of Birmingham Rep; Leeds Playhouse and HOME in Manchester have announced new seasons.
Panto season is upon us. Oh yes, it is. Summarising them all here would be an impossible job. Instead, I will just flag up the ones that have been well reviewed, starting with Ayr Gaiety’s BSL-integrated Mother Goose, which Thom Dibdin calls “quite extraordinary and modern” in his five-star review for The Stage. The Lyric Hammersmith is traditionally home to one of London’s liveliest pantos: this year, Aladdin is “spectacularly individualistic” with “an exhilarating score and some sensational dance routines” according to Paul Vale’s four-star review in The Stage. Emmanuel Akwafo’s dame is “an absolute outrage,” he adds. WhatsOnStage’s Taylor Vaughan gives it the full five stars and calls it “wonderfully balances the silly, the huge and the true.” The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar is less impressed, complaining of an “underdeveloped” book and “thin” dialogue in her three-star write-up.
Elsewhere in London, The Crush Bar favourite YesYesNoNo opened The Glorious French Revolution - its cartoonish and chaotic historical retelling - at the New Diorama Theatre to wildly mixed reviews. The Stage’s Dave Fargnoli gave it four stars and called it “part potted history, part grotesque pantomime, and a stingingly relevant social critique.” The Times’ Clive Davis, though, gave it one star and likened it to “some endless nursery Nativity play.” In TimeOut, Andrzej Lukowski called it “stylish” but “intellectually threadbare” and the worst YesYesNoNo show he’s seen.
“Ward’s bet seems to be that he’s found a thrilling enough theatrical language to elevate his stage lecture into something special. And there are definitely moments where it comes close. But ultimately there is no real insight here, and no attempt to explain why this show exists or what the Revolution meant to its makers. Stylish hipster theatre, about the coolest of the big Western revolutions, but it’s about as profound as a Che Guevara t-shirt.”
At the candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Chelsea Walker’s staging of the rarely performed problem play All’s Well That Ends Well earns four stars from Akbar in The Guardian, who liked how it “exposes the clashing human desires in the drama rather than attempting to paste over them.” The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish awards three stars, bemoaning a “jolting” plot, “knotty” dialogue and “a peculiar evening.” At the Kiln Theatre, Amit Sharma’s staging of American playwright Dan McCabe’s Queens-set play about hip-hop is “intriguing but rambling” but with “blazing performances” according Nick Curtis’ three-star review in the Evening Standard. At Southwark Playhouse, Christopher Clegg’s production of Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen’s musical about musicals [title of show] is mostly three-starred. And, at the Hampstead Theatre, Rajiv Joseph’s King James - another American import, given its UK premiere by director Alice Hamilton - gets four stars from both The Stage and TimeOut. It is, writes Vale in The Stage, "a “fascinating” and “carefully constructed” two-hander about “how men communicate through shared passion for sport.”
Outside London, Newbury’s Watermill Theatre picks up two five-star reviews - one from WhatsOnStage’s Judi Herman and one from the remarkably busy Vale in The Stage - for its family production of Pinnochio directed by Elle While and Indiana Lown-Collins. In Birmingham, the touring Steps musical Here & Now is a “frothy, camp jukebox musical that delivers just what its audience wants” according to Matt Hemley’s four-star review for The Stage. And, finally, at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Elizabeth Newman’s swansong production of The Sound Of Music gets four stars in The Times, The Stage, The Scotsman and The Guardian, and five stars from The Observer’s Clare Brennan, who admires Newman’s “sensitive and thoughtful direction”, Richard Reeday’s “witty musical arrangements” and Kirsty Findlay’s “sparkling” central performance as Maria. Newman leaves Scotland for Sheffield soon, to be replaced in Perthshire by Alan Cumming. She will be much missed.
The week in interviews: Sharon D Clarke, Andy Street, You Me Bum Bum Train, and more…
“A lot of my theatre has been so angst-ridden too. None of it was sunny and glorious and happy. It was all crying and snot.” Max Webster’s revival of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest is up and running at the National Theatre. The Times’ Dominic Maxwell spoke to Olivier Award-winning star Sharon D Clarke.
“I genuinely believe we can make this the best regional theatre in Europe.” Former Tory West Midlands mayor Andy Street, who used to run John Lewis, has just taken over as chairman at Birmingham Rep. He spoke to The Telegraph’s Liam Kelly.
“YMBBT is like an empathy machine. You’re getting to walk in someone else’s shoes.” Immersive theatre pioneers Kate Bond and Morgan Lloyd - AKA You Me Bum Bum Train - are back for the first time in eight years. They spoke to The Financial Times’ Sarah Hemming about why they do what they do.
“I think what Robert Icke does in adapting ancient plays is wonderful. I have never worked with him but I really want to.” Welsh actor Steffan Rhodri will be on screens in the final Gavin and Stacey episode this Christmas. Before that, he is appearing in The Little Foxes at the Young Vic. I chatted to him for The Stage.
“The volume of work we produce means there is always something exciting happening.” Glasgow institution A Play, A Pie and A Pint’s new artistic director Brian Logan, formerly of Camden People’s Theatre, was a guest on BBC Radio Scotland show The Arts Mix last week, as was Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Elizabeth Newman.
Further reading: boring theatre, panto playwrights, the 25 best musical numbers, and Mark Ravenhill’s favourite theatre books…
“We've been boring audiences for decades now, and they've responded by slowly withdrawing their patronage.” This Guardian article by playwright Anthony Neilson was originally published in 2007, but it resurfaced on social media this week. I’m not sure I agree with him - but more on that in a future issue of The Crush Bar.
“Take away the racism and homophobia and misogyny that has found its way into some pantos in the past, and the heart of it is fun, family and a good night out.” Holly Williams has chatted to playwrights up and down the land about how to put together the perfect panto for The Stage’s latest long-read.
“Defying Gravity is a properly spine-tingling power ballad but how does it measure up against the great show tunes of the past century?” To mark Wicked’s arrival in cinemas, The Times’ team has selected the 25 best musical numbers in history.
“Through rain, bone-chilling temperatures and the crush of crowds from neighboring shows, this scene, which takes 62 people to pull off, goes on.” Sarah Bahr has uncovered how Jamie Lloyd’s Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard pulls off its live-streamed exterior scenes for the New York Times.
“My foundational text. The most direct route to creativity. I couldn’t have been a playwright without it.” Playwright Mark Ravenhill is listing his twenty “essential” books about theatre on BlueSky. So far: IMPRO by Keith Johnstone, Theatre Of The Oppressed by Augusto Boal, The Actor And The Text by Cecily Berry, On Film Making by Alexander Mackendrick, Different Every Night by Mike Alfreds, The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler, and The Field Of Drama by Martin Esslin.
“Watching a Robert Icke show after watching most theatre is like switching from ITV3 to HBO.” Here is Tim Bano’s love letter to Rob Icke for Exeunt again. Exeunt has a new home here on Substack, and you should all subscribe via the link below.
Podcast corner
Episode five of my podcast, A History Of Scottish Drama In Six Plays focuses on Glasgow’s year as European City of Culture in 1990, on the Playwrights’ Strike that saw Scottish dramatists down tools for better pay, and on the generation of writers that emerged over the following decade, including David Greig, David Harrower, Nicola McCartney, and Stephen Greenhorn. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
And the latest episode of The London Theatre Review features reviews of The Lion King and Wolves On Road, plus an interview with the new cast of The Lehman Trilogy.
And, if you wanted another podcast to listen to, then there is The WhatsOnStage Podcast. The latest episode also discusses the return of The Lehman Trilogy.
That’s all for this issue of Shouts And Murmurs. I’ll be back in your inboxes on Friday with your regular issue of The Crush Bar. Thanks for reading and supporting this newsletter.
I will leave you with one final reminder that, until the end of November, you can become a paid supporter of The Crush Bar - and get all the above content straight in your inbox every week - for just £4/month or £40/year - a 20 per cent discount on what it usually costs.
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 Twitter/X, where I’m @fergusmorgan.
Have a good week.
Fergus