Where have all the original musicals gone?

Shrek the Musical has recently opened in the West End, the latest in a long line of musicals (on both sides of the Atlantic) – The Wizard of Oz, Spiderman, Legally Blonde – adapted from the screen to the stage. Even Cameron Mackintosh’s first new show in a decade, Betty Blue Eyes, is a musical adaption of A Private Function, a 1984 film written by Alan Bennett.

Why are there so few new, original musicals in the West End? What does this tell us about British theatre, and especially British musical theatre today?

It would be very easy to lay a substantial amount of the responsibility for the tide of adapted musicals in the West End at the feet of one man – Andrew Lloyd Webber. After all, his series of talent shows on the BBC have all been for adapted musicals or revivals – The Sound of Music, Joseph, Oliver and The Wizard of Oz. These shows have undoubtedly brought more people to the West End, but how many will have returned to see other productions as well as those championed on the BBC?

A golden opportunity was misssed to use a primetime television slot to celebrate and promote new original musical theatre productions. It is hard enough as it is to try and attract an audience to a new, relatively unknown show when competing with long-running, ever popular shows. Why not use the television talent show to redress the balance a little, and showcase a new production? This would at least give a few new shows a fighting chance of success.

But perhaps this criticism is misplaced – after all has the West End ever been the home of new, innovative musicals?

Or does it rather just snap up productions that have been popular or critically acclaimed elsewhere?

Some of the most popular, and long-running musicals in the West End began life elsewhere – Les Miserables, the longest running musical in London, if not the world, opened at the Barbican before transferring to the West End.

But it is worth remembering that Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera and Cats, some of the most popular musicals ever, are all based on novels/ books. Perhaps there has never been a “golden age” of original British musical theatre.

Perhaps the only difference between the shows opening today and those earlier productions is that producers are increasingly taking their inspiration from films rather than books when trying to find the next blockbuster.