Boris should take a bite out of the Big Apple’s glamor
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008Does West End theatre feature on Boris Johnson’s list of mayoral priorities? Right and proper as it is that he’s devoting immediate attention to dealing with knife crime and the troubling state of lawlessness on the capital’s streets, there’s nothing trivial about focusing some energy, and swiftly too, on the shoddy state of London’s commercial theatre district.
Do I exaggerate? Producer Sonia Friedman’s comments yesterday about the way New York has overtaken London in terms of its new plays offering reflect a growing sense that theatreland here needs to raise its game. Comparing the 23 new productions – 10 of them plays – that have opened on Broadway so far this year with the ‘pitiful’ number mounted back home, she argued: ‘Broadway has become far more fertile and far more adventurous.. While the West End used to be about new work and the play, it’s now about the musical.’
A cynic might argue that she’s simply flattering New York because two of her transferred productions – the hit farce Boeing-Boeing and Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll – have just been shortlisted for Tony Awards (10 nominations in all). But when a producer as experienced on both sides of the Atlantic as Friedman makes these kind of remarks, we do need to sit up and take notice and they follow on from comments she made at the State of Play debate, hosted at the Royal Court last week, a recording of which has just gone live on Theatrevoice.
Without great drama – especially exciting new drama – appearing regularly in the commercial sector, this essential cash-cow for the economy (which yields an estimated £200m in tax) is going to lose its good-health. Fantastic as many musicals are, the overall theatre ecology also depends on the art of ‘straight’ plays. The returns on investment are rarely sky-high, the risks are huge and the competition for artier-minded theatregoers intense – especially from the subsidised sector – but this is not a challenge that can be ducked. Scanning the lists of what’s on offer at the moment, the pickings are simply too slim for comfort: God of Carnage, the Yasmina Reza hit, is a sell-out that won’t extend its run; That Face, another Friedman production, from young sensation Polly Stenham offers a glimmer of rare excitement – but otherwise, even with 39 Steps at the Criterion, Brief Encounter at the Haymarket, The Deep Blue Sea at the Vaudeville and Pygmalion at the Old Vic, you could comfortably tick off the ‘best in town’ list in a couple of afternoons. Not good enough.
What’s to be done? And what can we learn from New York? Having just come back from the Big Apple – where I caught the whirlwind opening night of Boeing-Boeing – I am acutely conscious that London’s theatre district is sorely lacking in comparable buzz. It may be an urban myth that cab drivers in New York are always up-to-speed with the hot new openings – when conversational English is hardly a given – but there’s something about the architecture and attitude of the city that creates all-encompassing waves of energy. Boeing-Boeing is going to be a big hit in New York not because of notable star-casting but because the critics have given it a rapturous reception and the public is content to rush to something it’s told is outstanding – and pay through the nose if necessary to catch it.
It’s hopeless individual producers in London scratching around desperately trying to pull together a stellar cast for every new play that comes their way – when what the West End theatre needs to do is rediscover its innate sense of glamour and occasion. From this will flow the excitement that means punters feel a trip to the theatre is a proper night out, regardless of whether anyone breaks into song or not. Unfortunately the Ken Livingstone era, besides a few concerted drives to raise the West End’s profile, was characterised by an underlying lack of appreciation for theatreland’s needs – the congestion charge being a prime example. The grottier horrors of Shaftesbury Avenue have been addressed through a recent clean-up campaign but some fresh thinking is required. Pavements need to be widened, through-traffic needs to be curbed – especially ahead of the curtain-up times – and the transport issues for those travelling home require a more joined-up approach.
Above all it would be hugely encouraging if the Mayor could get out and about, and actively champion the West End. My fear is that Boris didn’t take any tips from Michael Bloomberg on this topic when he came over – and is so concerned with being a hard-headed politician now that he’s overlooked one of his – and his city’s - prime assets, namely, showbiz razzmatazz. Instead of all work and no play – the play’s the very thing to rekindle London’s sense of itself.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:00 am
While I agree with all of the above, I think you have to look at what else is going on in town - Off-Broadway and Off-West End - to understand why things are as they are. Plays on Broadway thrive at the Box Office partly thanks to a relative lack of top quality professionally produced plays elsewhere in town. We are lucky to have The National, The Royal Court, The Young Vic, The Old Vic, The Almeida, The Donmar, The Soho, The Hampstead, The Bush, The Gate, Hammersmith Lyric, The Orange Tree, Watford Palace, The Arcola, The Unicorn, Polka, Stratford East, The Menier and others. Take half those theatres away, and run the remainder on subscription schemes (like Off-Broadway theatres) and you’d see a much greater appetite for Boeing Boeing in the West End. It would be great if all theatres, West End and otherwise, were filled with well-attended plays. But I’d sooner lose plays from the West End completely than lose the work of even two or three of the theatres listed above.