Modern musicals
Musical theatre is still extremely popular and dominates the West End of London and Broadway. New musicals appear all the time, although there are still many revivals of older classics, such as Singing in the Rain, Miss Saigon and Oliver! Phantom of the Opera alone has been produced in more than 150 cities in 30 countries. It鈥檚 a big business and as long as there鈥檚 audience demand, Musical theatre will be in robust health. Total box-office revenue in the West End in 2012 was nearly 拢530million, of which those seeing musicals spent more than 拢320million.
Serious musicals have also emerged, based upon the complexities of modern society and current issues, such as Rent about the HIV virus and AIDS. Recently there has been a trend for taking a performer鈥檚 existing songs and creating a narrative around them to form a musical. This is the case for popular West End shows, Mamma Mia! (the songs of Abba), We Will Rock You (Queen) and Jersey Boys (Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons).
Why is Musical theatre still so popular with audiences? Is it because they provide a much needed escape in troubled times? Critic Charles Spencer said:
My hunch is that theatre won't just survive the recession it will actually help us to endure it by offering that special sense of community of a theatre audience and a temporary escape into other worlds and other lives.