The Hippodrome’s mammoth task

Can the theatre reinvent the musical for the 21st century?

Good morning Patchers — when was the last time you went to see a musical? How about one that wasn’t a rerun of Cats, Les Misérables or another classic of the genre? Not recently, we’ll bet. It’s rare for a brand-spanking new production to be staged when the tried-and-tested favourites will guarantee audiences come flooding through theatre doors year-on-year. And yet, the Birmingham Hippodrome has ripped up the rulebook, going against the tide of the industry to launch a UK first: a department devoted entirely to creating new musical theatre. Can it survive, let alone thrive? Anya Ryan considers the challenge ahead in today’s article.

Actors in the 2016 production of Cats. Photo by Birmingham Hippodrome.

Editor’s note: I’ve been very happy to read the positive responses to the message I sent out yesterday about the changes we are making at The Dispatch. If you haven’t caught up yet, you can read all about it here. In short, we will be sending out slightly fewer issues so we can focus on quality, longer articles (and bring an end to daily Brum in Briefs). That means you’ll be hearing from us a lot less regularly if you aren’t a subscriber. To make sure you don’t miss out — and to read Anya’s story in full — sign up today.

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Brum in Brief

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The Hippodrome’s mammoth task

By Anya Ryan

For drama kids of the second city, attending your first live musical theatre show at the Birmingham Hippodrome is an eye-opening rite of passage. I was once a first-timer entering that grand Hurst Street entrance, one among the over 500,000 visitors who pass through those doors each year drawn to its big, flashy, musical hits, which have often zoomed their way in fresh from West End theatres.

In the past year alone, the Hippodrome has welcomed the touring casts of Hamilton, The Lion King and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — The Musical through its doors. But while billboards of much loved incoming productions still decorate the theatre’s exteriors, the main stage now shares its home with an innovative new development venture, which has a sky-high aim to change the future of musical theatre for the better.

Entering through the same stage door entrance as the stars, I meet Deirdre O’Halloran, the head of Birmingham Hippodrome’s recently formed New Musical Theatre department. This new in-house arm of the theatre is an “industry-leading” development and production centre for new musical theatre, as The Stage magazine recently described it. News of its establishment was praised widely across the theatre sector: Alex Young, who has starred in shows including the acclaimed Standing at the Sky’s Edge at the National Theatre, welcomed its announcement on X, while The Stage noted it was “the first of its kind in the UK”.

The theatre building. Photo by Birmingham Hippodrome.

But even with such backing, O’Halloran and her team are facing a mammoth task. It is notoriously difficult for new musicals to find stages in the UK. The West End is populated with long-running classics — Les Misérables, for example, is in its 39^th consecutive year — and people are known to return to safe favourites, again and again. So, how will the new titles the New Musical Theatre branch intends to develop fare against the long-standing big dogs?

“Well, there was a point where all of those were new musicals as well,” says O’Halloran. “There was a point where no one had seen The Lion King before. No one had seen Cats before. So, I think it is important to have a bit of optimism and confidence in artists.”

We’re sipping tea in the Hippodrome’s meeting room, a space that’s open to theatre makers from across Birmingham to book and use to discuss their creative pursuits. O’Halloran, who is Irish, softly spoken and warm, is clearly passionate about her department, but her faith in new musical theatre is not blind. The New Musical Theatre branch was established following extensive research, when the Hippodrome’s Artistic Director Jon Gilchrist tasked theatre producer Vicky Graham to survey the whole sector with a consultancy report. After interviewing leading industry figureheads about what needs to be done to ensure the future of musical theatre, her findings were clear. “We desperately needed an in-house musicals development department that is focused on fixing the gaps that are currently present,” O’Halloran says.

In the press release for the department’s announcement, Graham said that talented musical theatre writers working in the UK were in desperate need of more support and opportunity. No theatre in the UK had an in-house musical development team, and the sector was in great need of direct, focused development. But why was a theatre in Birmingham the right place for this? Surely, there are playhouses all across the country with loyal musical theatre fanbases?