Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Report on Touring From Arts Council England Finds Dance and Drama Declining and Musicals 'Flourishing'
www.broadwayworld.com: A new report conducted by Arts Council England has found that the number of plays touring England has fallen 64% since 2019, which had indicated that changes must be made in the industry.
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3 comments:
I think that there is a lot to dive into here and I think this is a big question that not a lot of people can answer. I think that mainly people just brush it off as dance and straight plays are just boring or not as exciting as a musical. Yet I don't know if that is truly where the separation is at, as a big fan of musicals and plays and everything in between I think there's a big separation between people who like musicals and people who like straight plays.I think a big part of musicals that are thriving right now is there's not a lot of original works out there right now, A lot of the musicals that are on Broadway are a rendition of a famous book or Is somehow connected to another famous thing.Yet all the straight plays are original stories and original works that people aren't really excited about if they don't know anything about it.
This report is very interesting. I feel like it encapsulates a lot of shifts in theatre and entertainment that have been appearing internationally as well as in England. It’s clear that in recent decades spectacle has become more and more bombastic and more and more central to audience experiences. This is especially evident with stuff like modern day stadium concerts as well as modern musicals and Disney theme park shows. One could also point out that while concerts and musicals frequently tour, I can’t think of the last time I knew of like, a touring straight play. I can’t say I’m altogether upset about these developments as in a lot of areas they provide opportunities for those of us interested in working in live entertainment. But simultaneously it’s tragic to see straight plays not get the attention the deserve. And more crucially, while I am a big fan of spectacle, it can overshadow other aspects of a production or be included just for the sake of flash-and-trash spectacle rather than in a way that really fits the artistic vision.
I think this is more of wide scale issue, within media people have been wanted things to get bigger and bigger(I myself have also fallen into to this a bit) musicals and other things like it just grab onto to people’s attention better because of its grandness and that caters to audiences a lot, they have more of a visual impact and are at times really technically complex which is important in the modern era. I don’t think this shift is entirely negative though, since work that has a lot of spectacle usually opens up exciting opportunities, especially for designers and technicians. However, it’s disappointing to see more simple plays receive less attention. Especially since in a lot of these bigger entertainment productions, spectacle can sometimes overpower the storytelling if it’s used just for impact. When it isn’t grounded in the artistic vision, it feels excessive rather than meaningful.
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