The lights dim, the hubbub dies down and the audience settles back in their seats. Then the curtain goes up for an evening of music, lights, dancing and hit songs. But how does a stage musical ever come to be presented?
No other form of entertainment requires the delivery to a live audience of such a complex blend of creative and performing skills, nightly for sometimes years on end.
The skills needed to put on a straight play – from financing the production to rehearsing the cast – are all present in a musical, but it has many more complications uniquely its own. There is the music itself, which must be composed, arranged for an orchestra and dovetailed into the plot. There is dancing, which needs to be choreographed. There are the costumes and sets, often more lavish than in a conventional play. There is the need to find players who can sing and dance. Finally, the theatre itself must be big enough and suitable to accommodate the show – with good acoustics and room for an orchestra.
All this makes big musicals the most expensive form of theatrical production. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera cost about £2 million to mount in London’s West End, and Ziegfeld, which opened there in 1988, cost an initial, £3.2 million. On Broadway in New York, the starting price is around $7 million.
Just to break even, a big musical needs to play to full houses for a year, compared with about three months for a play.
The rewards of success with a musical can be phenomenal. Another Lloyd Webber hit, Cats, generated £250 million in three years in the mid-1980s. The show played at the same time in Britain, America and eight other countries around the globe. The record album sold millions, and souvenir items such as T-shirts added to the takings.
Failure can be equally spectacular, particularly on Broadway, where the fate of a show can be determined by the critics virtually from the opening night. The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Carrie closed there after a week, losing $7 million. Even lyricist Alan J. Lerner, whose My Fair Lady is among the most successful musicals ever, suffered the ignominy of seeing his Dance a Little Closer taken off before its third night.
Man in the middle
The risk and responsibility of putting on a musical rests with the producer. He selects the show, organizes the money, and superintends everything to do with the production. There are two types of producer – the impresario and the manager.
Impresarios operate independently, with their own production organizations. They are largely free to stage what they wish, when and where they choose. The real restrictions are financial. Impresarios must be able to raise the money to pay the bills, and their ventures must show the promise of a useful profit if financiers are going to back them.
Managers, most commonly, are employees appointed by the board of trustees of a particular theatre to mount their own productions. The theatre itself may be privately or publicly owned.
Because of the money involved, large-scale musicals have usually been the province of impresarios. And forms of co-production have evolved. Both Cats and The Phantom of the Opera were presented jointly by the London-based impresario Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s group, The Really Useful Theatre Company.
Choosing the show
Original musicals involve three separate strands – the lyrics, the dialogue and the music. They are rarely all ready together when the producer is beginning his deliberations, because it usually takes at least three people to create them.
To simplify the problem, many of the best-known musicals take their plots or story lines from works that already exist in another form. Kiss Me Kate and West Side Story raided Shakespeare; My Fair Lady came from George Bernard Shaw’s stage play Pygmalion, itself built on an ancient Greek legend. Cats originated from light-hearted poems by T.S. Eliot. Oliver, Les Miserables and Man from La Mancha were adapted from novels by Dickens, Victor Hugo and Cervantes.
By borrowing a ready-made story line, authors and composers have a concept that can be easily grasped by a producer. Additionally, they may assume that the plot has already proved its attraction.
The genesis of The Phantom of the Opera illustrates how the various strands of a musical can come together. The original novel was written by a French journalist, Gaston Leroux, in 1911. It was made into a film three times. A stage version was put on at the Theatre Royal in Stratford, London, in 1984, using the music of operatic composers such as Verdi and Offenbach.
The composer Andrew Lloyd Webber became interested in the Stratford show, and considered putting a version of it on in the West End. At that point, he too planned to borrow the music; only later did he decide to write his own.
The project was still at the idea stage when Lloyd Webber approached Cameron Mackintosh to co-produce it. So the producers were involved with the show from the start.
The creative team
In any stage production, a key figure is the director. He is responsible to the producer for the casting and for all artistic and technical aspects of the production. He is responsible, too, for rehearsing the performers and the technicians in charge of sound, lighting and scenery.
Lloyd Webber chose Hal Prince, whose musical successes included Fiddler on the Roof and Evita. Even before Prince was in place, Lloyd Webber had decided on the set and costume designer – Maria Bjornson, who had previously worked for the English National Opera and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
To write the lyrics for the songs, they appointed a young unknown, Charles Hart, after hearing his work in a competition. And the dialogue, or ‘book’, was by Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe – who also wrote additional lyrics.
Casting the parts
In major productions, the star parts are normally cast a year or even longer in advance. Early casting ensures the widest choice of top names – leading actors usually stay in one role for six months to a year. But, equally important, the commitment of a star performer helps to raise the vital money.
For that reason, the producer has the final say about who plays the leading roles, through he will take the director’s advice. The other parts are left to the director to fill.
Christine, the female lead in The Phantom of the Opera, was written by Lloyd Webber specifically with his wife, the soprano Sarah Brightman, in mind. At that time, she was not a front-rank star, and others were auditioned before the role was finally given to her.
The male lead, Michael Crawford, was personally chosen by Lloyd Webber. Crawford was a household name in Britain; from the television series Some Mothers Do Ave ?Em. He had also had a huge hit in the musical Barnum which had had a long run in the West End.
Raising the money
While the director is assembling all the components of a production, the producer is putting the final touches to the finances. His budget itemizes all the main costs.
Some costs are fixed from the start – for example, the sets and costumes, which will be needed however long the show runs. For The Phantom, they cost £900,000. Others, such as theatre rental and wages to the less senior members of the company, are partly fixed – they no longer represent a cost if the show closes.
Some costs are tied to the income from the production, as fixed percentages. The star may receive a flat fee in rehearsal, plus perhaps 20 per cent of the ticket income until the show recovers its investment, and then 12.5 per cent after that.
Other key personnel, such as the designer and the musical director, are on smaller percentages – say, 2 per cent. So are the writers and the composer.
The less money a producer needs to raise from outside sources, the more profit he can keep for himself. However, few impresarios wish to take all the risk themselves. Their proportion varies from 10 per cent to 70 per cent, either directly in cash or in personal guarantees to secure a loan.
The usual sources for the rest are companies or individual investors, who put money into a show as they might buy shares on the stock exchange. Most producers have their own lists of companies and individuals – known as ‘angels’ – who are potential investors, but sometimes the opportunities are publicly advertised. Angels do not begin to see a return until the initial expenses have been met in full.
Producers of musicals have other opportunities to raise money – for example, by interesting a record company in advance in the album rights for the show, and by licensing merchandise associated with it. Andrew Lloyd Webber and the lyricist Tim Rice – collaborators in Jesus Christ, Superstar and Evita – pioneered the techniques of releasing single records, albums and pop videos before the show opened – in effect testing the response, creating public awareness, and raising money.
Once the finances have been worked out and the company begins to assemble, work on the show can begin in earnest. One early priority for the producer is to book a theatre and set a date for the opening night.
Depending on the type of show, the official first night may be a year or more ahead. Some productions are given a provincial tryout before they are brought to a major centre such as the West End or Broadway – to identify and correct any flaws before and grand opening. Others may have previews before invited audiences. In either case, these dates must be built into a timetable.
Those associated with the production divide, loosely, into two groups. The producer and his associates concentrate on the business matters, including publicity and advertising. Much of their effort is directed towards advance ticket sales. The Phantom of the Opera, for example, opened in New York with a guaranteed box office advance of $19 million – assuring it financial success. Few producers can count on anything like that.
All the other aspects of the production are under the overall control of the director. First, he will want to make sure that the script is nearing its final form. He may call on the writers to make changes, sometimes right up to opening night and even after that.
The musical score is the responsibility of the musical director, who may edit it with the help of the composer, supervise its arrangement for the orchestra and prepare it for the show.
Simultaneously, the designer will be working on the sets and costumes. The sets may begin as detailed models or drawings, and they must be approved at each stage by the producer and director.
A number of specialists may work alongside the designer – creating the lighting or working out special make-up, for example. A master carpenter and his assistants eventually collaborate with the designer in building the sets. A wardrobe mistress supervises preparation of the costumes. A property master assists in obtaining such items as furniture needed to dress the sets.
Meanwhile, the director is beginning his work with the cast. He must also make sure he has suitable understudies – reserves for the leading players – and ‘swing’ or utility players available for minor roles in an emergency.
Rehearsing the cast
From the time they are hired, the actors begin familiarizing themselves with the script. Before proper rehearsals start, the director sometimes conducts readings involving the entire company, indicating how he wishes each part to be played.
These ‘read-throughs’ can be held anywhere. But in the next phase, where the actors move according to stage directions, a rehearsal room or stage is needed. As there are usually no sets, their positions are indicated by coloured taps on the floor.
The early rehearsals are conducted both with the whole company together, and also with only certain individuals or groups who require special instructions for their parts. The musical director takes the singers and musicians through their paces. The choreographer or dance master instructs the dancers. An arranger may be brought in for flying stunts or fights.
Gradually, under the director’s eye, the separate elements come together, and a move into the theatre becomes essential. As the sets are built, the stagehands may be given practice in scene-shifting. Lighting and effects are rehearsed. Singing, dancing and other special stage routines are integrated into the rehearsals.
The final stage – perhaps a week before the first performance to an audience – is the full-scale dress rehearsal. The actors are in costume and make-up, the sets and lighting are in place. The full orchestra is assembled. Only minor changes remain before the theatre opens its doors and the audience and the critics deliver their judgment.
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