A Pah-ssion for Producing

Interesting article by agent-turned-musical-producer Stuart Piper in the Stage entitled "No New Musical theatre composers? Pah".

Firstly, based on the accompanying photo, how do you become an agent?

Secondly, this:

"Last week, I produced a rehearsed sing-through of a new musical. It was not based on anything. Not a film, not a piece of literature, not a jukebox catalogue of popular songs."

There is always some confusion around this, so let's clear it up. The fact that a musical is based on a film or a piece of literature does not make it unoriginal. If we took that line then producers of new musicals would have turned down A Little Night Music and Cats.

Musicals are dramas told through song, so the key thing for a musical to be original is for the songs to be new. The majority of musicals qualify in that they tend to have old stories but new songs. Jukebox musicals, on the other hand, tend to have new stories and old songs. So they can't really be considered original. All clear?

Excellent. Carrying on. Now here's where I get a bit worried:

"So feeling all inspired after last week’s workshop, I thought I’d share with you the bizarre turn of events that led to me unearthing musical brilliance."

OK, I'm sitting comfortably. Here are the bullet points:

"So I met actress Aoife Nally, when she shared Dressing Room No.9 with my partner at the time...it was during her run of The Light in the Piazza at Leicester Curve, that I got carried away and suggested she write a musical...So back to the bar at the Curve, and after a few too many G+T’s, I told her she should write a musical...I’m not going to give anything away about its content yet, it would be premature, but as I sat there listening to these incredible voices sing this heartbreaking story, I got that bubble of excitement that always make me do something wreckless (like, oh god, produce a musical)...I’ve lost money producing musicals in the past, and only really made money producing plays and representing talent. But this one is not about the money – it’s about art. And if I’m right about that, the rest may follow."

So, to summarise, this is a musical initiated by a gin-soaked conversation with no proven property, two first-time writers and a money-losing musical producer who thinks the whole adventure is comically wreckless. If I were an investor, I'd have given up by paragraph two.

Now I'm not saying that musicals can't have original stories or first-time writers or be good without making money. This show may turn out to be terrific. I genuinely hope it gets to stage. What I can't help wondering is what Mr. Piper hoped to achieve in writing this article.

His pah-ssion is evident but is it enough?