We Open Out Of Town

Ian McKellern and Patrick Stewart are currently on a national tour of 'Waiting For Godot' prior to a season at one of London's premier theatres, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. It closes at the Theatre Royal Newcastle tonight after visiting Bath, Norwich, Edinburgh.
Not a long tour by any means but the reception the production has received in these cities has prompted the two stars to ask why do West End shows not open on tour anymore?

In the 40s right through to the 80s, 99% of shows, musicals or plays, would always tour the UK before opening in London. These tours would hardly ever be shorted than 10 weeks and sometimes 8 or 9 months.
If a show was having problems on tour then the producers would almost always just keep the show touring and postpone its West End opening until it was fit for audiences and critics alike. There were many cities on a shows tour schedule that were feared to be a lot tougher than any London theatre critic could be.
It always payed for the producer to tour a show and be sure of a warm West End welcome whenever they opened. Obviously, this wasn't always the case.
With almost every show opening 'cold' in London these days it maybe worth pursuing McKellern and Stewarts remarks.
The new arrival of 'Calendar Girls' has been on the road since last September, touring the length and breadth of the UK before finding it's home at the Cowerd just last week. It was widely known that the show suffered many problems on that tour and these have now been ironed out and it has an almost sellout run in front of it.
'Spring Awakening' had a stunning UK premiere at the Hammersmith Lyric and from day one it was a certain transfer into the West End after the amazing reviews it got. But it has now been said that it has suffered hugely at the box office due to it not having any big publicity drive behind it prior to the Novello opening, or at least not enough time between closing and transfer for the public to be aware of it. it could have done a lot better if it had had a few weeks on tour to key cities and then came in. Sadly it looks like it has bitten its own hand off and its future isn't to bright.
'Legally Blonde' has been rumored for a West End opening for nearly 2 years now and it is eventually happening. BUT not for another 9 months. Thats 9 months of intense publicity and 2 prior years of rumor control that will get this show one of the biggets openings this year.
I certainly wish more shows would open out of town and get settled in prior to the West End, Cameron Mackintosh certainly knows that 'Mary Poppins' could not have opened cold in the West End and he has now said he wished that some of his other bigger shows had gotten a pre West End try out in cities like Manachester, Birmingham etc.
One problem is that most stars wont commit to more than a few months in the West End leave alone a UK tour before it.
Perhaps Sir Ian and Patrick could change the minds of some great stars and convince them that there is life outside the West End.

Your thoughts?

I heard Simon Callow (who is playing a supporting role!!!) interviewed about this on Radio 4 and he was aying how important it was to "take it to the people".

I thought this sounded rather patronising as it is only a four stop tour and isn't coming anywhere near me.

In general though, I don't care if a production tours before or after but tours do give me the opportunity to see things I wouldn't have journeyed to the West End specifically for (eg Boeing Boeing, The Sound of Connie Music)

Its a shame they dont really do it anymore to a certain degree because they could be very helpful to the creative. I know the Manchester Palace Theatre used to get many shows in the 60s and 70s that would open there and then transfer to London.

I suppose many of our shows tour 1st to see if its going to find an audience in London (Footloose, Flashdance etc) which do transfer and then other shows which hope to but relaize from the road it may not be best (Jekyll and Hyde, Our House etc)

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A few of the big British musicals that famously opened out of town.



'Oliver! opened at the New Theatre London (renamed The Albery from the late 60s and now the Noel Coward) on 30th June 1960 to amazing reviews that ensured an incredible run, for those days, of 2618.
It had Ron Moody as Fagin and Georgia Brown as Nancy. Making his West End debut was Barry Humphries as Mr Sowerberry.

The production had an out of town run at the Wimbledon Theatre in January 1960.
It was booked there for 3 weeks but the revolutionary revolving set design by Sean Kenny stopped or cancelled many performances. This, together with constant rewrites etc saw the production almost called off as it began to look like a train crash before many members of the public had seen a full performance.
It's Wimbledon tryout actually went on for nearly 7 weeks before a final decision was made to take to the West End.


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'Twang!' opened at The Shaftesbury Theatre on Dec 20th 1965 and closed 43 performances later.It starred a young Barbara Windsor, James Booth and an almost unknown comic called Ronnie Corbett.
The critics had a field day ripping the living daylights out of the show that had become famous before it even hit London.

The production had an out of town run at the Palace Theatre in Manchester in October 1964. The booking was for 3 weeks and then straight in to town riding n the success that Lionel Bart had had with 'Oliver' which was still in town..
Trouble started the first day of rehearsals and the fighting continued until the final curtain at the Shaftesbury nearly 3 months later.
Lionel Bart had let fame and fortune go to his head and by the time 'Twang!' hit the stage he was hitting the bottle and drugs. The production team knew early on they had a trouble show but with Bart constantly out of his mind he could never deliver the demanded and promised constant rewrites. The producers, Bernard Delfont, Richard Mills and others were getting cold feet and so disastrous was each performance that people were traveling up to Manchester to catch, the now famous, show.
Amongst those visitors were journalists who took great pleasure in reporting back to London what disastrous delights were on stage.
'Twang!' was in try out in Manchester for an incredible 7 weeks in the end.
The heated publicity prior to the opening at the Shaftesbury almost dried up the box office before a single performance had played.
The critics circled, attacked and that was its fate sealed.
Some houses saw as few as 100 people and the show limped along for just another 5 weeks.
The tryout in Manchester was actually longer than its London run!


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'Billy' opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 1st May 1974. It starred a young Michael Crawford making his West End musical debut as Billy Fisher. In the cast as his girlfriend was an unknown Elaine Paige, 4 years before ?Evita'.
The production was huge and the critics adored it as did the public who filled Drury Lane for the next 3 years.

The production had an out of town tryout at the Palace Manchester and played there for 4 weeks and during this time the production just got tighter and tighter as the production team and producers made major changes to its sets and book. Money was no object as they could see the shows potential weeks before London set eyes on it.


Manchester and Wimbledon were the favored try outs of most producers in the 60s, 70s and early 80s..

Updated On: 4/29/09 at 10:58 AM

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