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Water Babies, at the Leicester Curve, was 'absolutely murdered' by the critics, says the theatre's c
Water Babies, at the Leicester Curve, was 'absolutely murdered' by the critics, says the theatre's chief executive. Photograph: Johan Persson
Water Babies, at the Leicester Curve, was 'absolutely murdered' by the critics, says the theatre's chief executive. Photograph: Johan Persson

Staging a new musical is risky - so should reviewers take it easy on them?

This article is more than 9 years old
Musicals are expensive and risky, as the producers of the new Adrian Mole adaptation well know. But that doesn't mean critics should feel duty-bound to support them

Are critics too hard on new British musicals? Well, not on Matilda or Billy Elliot they weren't. The five-star reviews came thick and fast for those delights, both of which are still running in the West End and may well for years to come. Most critics loved London Road, now being made into a movie by Rufus Norris, and recognised its ground-breaking contribution to the genre. Sheffield's This is My Family is being remounted in the autumn after ecstatic reviews.

But Fiona Allan, chief executive of Leicester Curve theatre, which has done its best work under outgoing director Paul Kerryson when reviving great American musicals from the mid-20th century, thinks that critics are too hard on the genre and should be more supportive. Perhaps her comments shouldn't come as too much of a surprise because she was speaking at the launch of a new musical version of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole 13¾, a new British musical by Jake Brunger and Pippa Cleary that will premiere at the Curve next year; she may well be trying to prepare the ground for its reception. Her words may not inspire confidence in a project that actually doesn't sound as if it needs any advance apologies, but who can blame her for being nervous? Musicals are a big risk: costly to develop and stage, and very hard to get right. Matilda spent years in development, and had the might of RSC subsidy behind it.

Suggesting that critics are too tough on British musicals, Allan pointed to the reviews of Water Babies, which earlier this year was seen at the Curve, although it was not a Curve-produced show. The critics, said Allan, "absolutely murdered" Water Babies, but she added that audiences loved it. She suggested that the critical reaction means it is unlikely to have an immediate future life as hoped. The argument that audiences love something is almost always wheeled out in these circumstances, whether it's We Will Rock You, Bernadette or Water Babies. Presumably, if audiences love Water Babies so much they will pour money into the show (either by crowdfunding or more traditional routes) so that it can indeed have further development and sail into the West End.

In many ways, Allan's comments reflect the feelings of Phil Willmott, who earlier this year suggested that critics like bashing musicals when he wrote on this blog about his Peter Pan-inspired musical, Lost Boy. Wilmott's argument was that broadsheet critical reaction to musicals doesn't really matter, and that it is Twitter, bloggers and public appreciation that keep musicals afloat. That may well be true. After all, the reviews for I Can't Sing were pretty warm, but the public still didn't want to buy tickets for it, and it folded. That ill-fated show's director, Sean Foley, argued this week that if it had been playing in a subsidised theatre it would have had time to find an audience.

There have been times in the past when it's been suggested critics should soft-pedal a little, an idea that I recall being floated after 9/11 when many feared West End theatre might face a tough time. I don't think they did, and the West End survived unscathed. Creating great shows in all genres, whether it's new British musicals, new writing, devised work or live art is never easy. All have their own particular difficulties. Producing a Chimerica or an Enron is as hard as producing a musical.

But traditional newspaper critics can only review what they see; they are not party to the process. And I think that the best way to serve theatre is to be honest and write what you really think. And that means that on rare – and I really do think they are rare – occasions when you see a show that you think is truly terrible, you should say so just as loudly as you would when you saw something you loved and praised to the skies. Praise, of course, that theatres and producers are more than happy to plaster on flyers and social media as if it's some kind of gospel truth. Which it ain't.

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