David Hare Thinks Musicals are 'Strangling' Traditional Theatre

Sir David Hare has lamented the 'squatting' of musicals at theatres such as the Royal Court and Wyndham's which were once home to 'straight plays'.

'I felt the same dismay this week passing Wyndham's, by far the most perfect playhouse in London for the spoken word,' he wrote in his column for the Spectator.

'Squatting there was yet another musical, the one the profession nicknames Wokelahoma."

'Musicals have become the leylandii of theatre, strangling everything in their path. It's a crushing defeat to see Wyndham's without a straight play.'

He added: "This summer I walked past The Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square. Since 1956, the greatest names in British playwriting had shone from its red neon. Now it had a fake-cute message reading BRB WRITERS AT WORK. [BRB means Be Right Back.] It pierced my heart. Why not just mount a neon saying 'We've got nothing worth putting on'?

"I felt the same dismay this week passing Wyndham's, by far the most perfect playhouse in London for the spoken word."

Andrew Lloyd Webber hit back at Hare in The Times, saying "David Hare is responsible for one of the greatest musical disasters in history,", referring to Hare's 1987 musical The Knife. "[He] is probably saying this because he mainly wants to bury his own contribution to musical theatre."

Nica Burns said there is 'always a large audience for light entertainment of different kinds'.

Also speaking to the Times she said Sir David's concerns are 'completely valid but I think there's a lot of hope about play writing and Britain has great writers. There's a fantastic generation of new playwrights coming through'.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride