Putting on a Show
PUTTING ON A SHOW
As a producer of West End shows, Freddie Tapner (2004), CEO and Artistic Director of the London Musical Theatre Orchestra, saw the impact the Covid pandemic had on the industry, but it also provided the opportunity for him to put on a once-in-a-lifetime version of ‘A Christmas Carol’. This is a story. A tale, not of two cities, but of timing, coincidence and hard graft in the face of Covid uncertainty to pull together a once in a lifetime production in London’s West End. For the last two years, the musical theatre industry has found itself in its most challenging time since the Second World War. Theatres, much like the rest of the country, had been shut down in the first lockdown of 2020, but when producer and CEO & Artistic Director of the London Musical Theatre Orchestra, Freddie Tapner (2004), realised that lockdown may be eased in December that year, he sensed there was an opportunity to do something special. Stage a version of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol like no other. In the autumn of 2020, he had none of the three things needed for a West End musical – title rights, a venue and a star. With the clock ticking, he now had just 11 weeks to get a show up and running in time for opening night, a process that would normally take 18 months to achieve…
Chapter 1 – The rights Getting title rights from a rights holder is not simply a transactional arrangement, where you pay the money and in return get the rights to the show you want. Very often a producer can be in competition with others who also want those rights and so Freddie needed to be able to persuade the holders that he was the right person to trust to put on the show. Sometimes this can involve lengthy negotiations with rights holders over numerous face-to-face meetings in the USA. Other times it can be resolved in just one phone call. With time pressing, having no idea how long this part of the process could take might have scuppered their plans from the off. However, when it came to A Christmas Carol, he had an ace up his sleeve. The London Musical Theatre Orchestra (LMTO), under Freddie’s direction, had already been performing the music for this production in concert before the pandemic brought things to a standstill. Having such a good existing relationship with the rights holders meant that he was able to assuage their nervousness that the need for performers to be socially distanced on stage would negatively impact the production and could demonstrate how they had plans already in place to ensure the quality of the show remained high. The rights holders knew they could trust him to deliver and he soon had the agreement in the bag. One challenge down. The speed with which he was able to negotiate this deal, also helped solve one of the other challenges – the venue. In a feat of circular organisation reminiscent of the Circumlocution Office of Little Dorrit, to secure title rights producers need to go to holders with the exact plan of the production, including the venue and the star. But in order to get the plan agreed, the star lined up and the venue booked, you need the rights… With the rights successfully secured however, Freddie could move on to sorting these.
Alpha Club
Chapter 2 – The Venue
Freddie conducting the LMTO.
West End venues are highly sought after and getting your show in the right venue can make or break it. In recent years there has been too much product vying for too few venues and producers had been scrambling to get their show taken on. From the theatres’ perspective, they want the best-selling ticket in town – the bigger the audience, the more revenue through food & beverage sales and merchandising they can make. When the rental fee paid by producers only really covers the ground rent and staff costs, the venue makes the majority of their profit from these additional the old radleian 2021
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