The British Musical

Is it just me, or has the British Musical had a downturn in its luck over the past few years? Looking back over the past few seasons on the West End to me there seems to be a definite lack of successful musicals created by Brits for the West End. The only few that come to mind are Mary Poppins and Billy Elliot.

Am I missing something or have the heydays of the new British Musical well and truly gone?

Updated On: 2/6/09 at 11:46 AM

I don't see it as any different to many of the 30 to 40 years I can remember.

I think original musicals have been chased out of the West End by jukebox musicals in just the same way the grey squirrel has got rid of the nutkins.

I hate jukebox musicals.

And there does seem to be a lack of artistic and creative energy amongst the producers of large-scale productions.

But soon there will only be crap left for jukebox musicals and the tide will turn again.

hey i loved All Shook Up (and secretly loved the mess that was Good Vibrations)

I really wish Bad Girls had run longer, it so deserved to

---

The main problem is that producers are reluctant to invest money in new musical theatre writing - so they tend to play safe with jukebox musicals with scores of proven pop hits or revivals of shows that have a trach record of success. There are some great British musical theatre composers/writers out there - it's just very difficult for them to get their work to the stage.

---

I second Charlie Girl!
And you SADM2 should be pushed off your surf board saying you liked Good Vibrations. You could only have seen it on DVD so you could put it off. I saw it in New York and wasted a night in the theatre watching that f**** c***!
I knew the house manager and he moved us to a box for act 2- it was a ploy to make me stay -b*****!

Updated On: 2/6/09 at 09:12 PM

Was Good Vibrations really that bad?

Actually, I just IBDBed it and with a choreographer who previous shows were the atrocious Into the Woods revival and the cheesefest also known as Dance of the Vampires, I can understand how the show was that bad.

What was the wafer thin plot they concocted to fit in as many Beach Boys songs as possible into 2 hours?

Good Vibrations really was that bad. The plot was reminiscent of a 60's Beach film (not a bad concept) where girl meets boy, is too nerdy for boy, but owns car so boy pretends to like her and falls for her once he realises she's the sexy lifeguard. Meanwhile boy's best friend is conflicted and tries to improve himself for sexy male lifeguard.

It's a thin but serviceable plot, but it was so poorly written as to be cringe-inducing, not to mention the AWFUL HIDEOUS HORRIBLE DESIGN.

ahh you see, i watched Good Vibrations live on stage when i was in NY, my auntie who lives there is a huge Beach Boys fan so when picking the shows for that visit Good Vibrations was one of them.

We were there on a matinee and the theatre was pretty empty, i believe it was only a few days after the dreadful reviews came out, we moved forward so i could watch the train wreck closer.

The show was horrid but never dull for a second, it was camp as tits, beach balls thrown in to the audience, a book which was written on a match box, awful sets (though i did like the wave projections) and dreadful choreography.

The cast worked hard, a lot of them were making there Broadway Debut (a few have gone on to do very well) but their hard work could not save it from been horrid.

I quite like the staging for the song Surfing USA ( not the one without the hydrolysis surfboards, they were just for the finale) and i loved the performances in the song Good Vibrations.

The biggest problem was the book, it was no existent, group of teens go to California, that was it, they had WAY to many songs crammed in to create a decent book.

I still have my playbill from that show and tracked a naught DVD down of it a few years later and still watch it. It's a show that i would love to rework, write a new book for it, because the music itself lent itself to a musical.

Oh and my Aunt hated it lol

---

Updated On: 2/8/09 at 08:56 AM

cheeky cow lol

---

'The biggest problem was the book, it was no existent, group of teens go to Planet Zog, that was it, they had WAY to many songs crammed in to create a decent book'.

Bit like We Will Rock You!!!!!!

I do not read every thread either!

I'd heard good things about it.

Talking about british musicals, I got a casting thing through the other day for Betwixt! it is, apparntley, going into the west end in Autunm.

Updated On: 2/10/09 at 05:13 PM