Guest Blog: 'The Future for Musical Theatre Writing is Bright': Producer James Lane on Developing New British Musicals and His Exciting New Show BABIES

It’s a particularly interesting moment in time for new musical theatre writing, and more specifically, British new musical theatre writing. The increasing swell of interest from the upcoming generation of musical theatre fans have embraced new writing – often seeking a musical out because it is new, rather than in spite of it being new and not being based on pre-existing material.

Recent homegrown commercial success stories such as Operation Mincemeat and the now global phenomenon that is SIX have helped to fuel this growing demographic of young musical theatre fans, who are hungry for new productions that are geared more towards them – and on this basis, there is good reason to feel that the future for new musical theatre writing in the UK is bright.

At the same time, and all that having been said, it feels as though it’s never been harder to navigate a path to the West End and to eventually secure a West End theatre amongst the many long-running hits, the big brand name adaptations, and the huge star-led plays – let alone with a brand-new piece of writing.

The current landscape presents a huge mountain to climb for new musical theatre writing in order for it to unlock the West End and in doing so attain the chance to give a new work the longevity, the legacy and the potential for long-term sustainability that we strive to give them. This leaves the producers that work to champion new writing seeking an elusive formula to connect with this newfound fanbase for fresh new content and organically gather the necessary momentum and hype to prove to venue owners that there is appetite for their production and to give their work a commercial life.

Nimax is an organisation that has always been a friend to new writing. Led by Nica Burns, it is in keeping with her history at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, her innovation of the Rising Stars Festival during the Covid pandemic, and the regularity with which the organisation will allow space in their programming for new work that so many of the concert productions of new musicals that are being presented this season are taking place in their theatres.

Amongst the various new productions being presented in concert format is one of our very own: Babies, a brand-new musical written by the immense upcoming talents, Jack Godfrey (42 Balloons) and Martha Geelan. In 2021, they were awarded the British Youth Music Theatre New Writing Award, and from that point on Crossroads Live & Indigo Productions have worked closely with them to develop the musical over two further workshops and to build an engaged core following of fans to help drive a wider interest in the show.

We have primarily achieved this so far through organic social campaigns using high quality, optimised assets that show off the fun, catchy and highly consumable nature of our show – and with just a soft launch, the tracks from the musical have already been played over 80,000 times. Our upcoming staged concert production of Babies (10-12 November at The Lyric Theatre) represents a key moment in the musical’s trajectory as we put the work in front of a public audience and let the initial fanbase we have established into the world of Babies for the very first time.

The concert format allows us to celebrate the work done thus far with our fan community and enables the piece to exist out in the world, prior to going to full production. We are extremely excited by the strength of the musical, by its incredible pop-rock score and by its joyous, heart-warming book, but we’re also still very much learning about the piece and where it can go.

The opportunity to get it up on its feet and to see how audiences engage and react to the material without yet having to commit to larger physical production decisions is an invaluable developmental step – and the fact that we’re able to continue to develop the production alongside building an audience that can sustain the show once it’s ready for an initial run makes it not only a cost-efficient path to full production but also a commercially exciting one.

Babies is at the Lyric Theatre for three performances only- from 10 - 12 November. Stream the tracks from the show here.
 

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