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Commentary: Profits and bathtime songs
By Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard 21.11.06
The straight play is going out of fashion in the West End. It must be something to do with our dumbed-down tastes. Summer And Smoke by Tennessee Williams and Bent, both ranked as serious, interesting pieces of work, are due to close early and their commercial failure remains a sign of the theatrical times.
The profusion of major musicals this autumn has encouraged theatre owners to set their hearts on songs and dance and the profits they bring.
One producer, not known for melodramatics, believes that within 12 months the straight play, if not transferred from a subsidised theatre, will be a rare West End sight.
His depressing prognosis is not atypical. Commercial theatre producers who put on serious new plays have become increasingly depressed about the reluctance of the media to become excited about anything other than the musical.
Straight plays do not secure a tidal wave of advance sales on which big musicals rely. Only Tom Stoppard's Rock 'N' Roll, launched in the Arts Councilfinanced Royal Court, is doing really well at the box office.
The Royal Shakespeare Company used to present productions for six months at the Barbican. Now it is content with two or three months at the Novello: the Shakespeare playgoers have vanished.
Of course, waves of American musicals may cease to surge into London. Our present theatre owners, who tend to be people whose interests are profits and shows that make them sing in the bath, may even be superseded by others with more wide-ranging concerns.
However, I fear that soon we will hear the passing-bell for the straight play in the West End.
