I’m writing this from an altitude of 38999 feet, eight hours into a fifteen-hour flight from Tokyo to London. It’s pitch-black outside, half the passengers are asleep, and my lips are so chapped I could probably use them to file my nails.
Some context: back in November, Finn Anderson, Leo Mercer and I each found out that we’d been selected to be part of an international musical theatre showcase in Tokyo, taking place in mid-December. Produced by the Japanese company Toho (who produced the stage version of Spirited Away – no big deal!), the idea was to showcase musical theatre writers from the UK, US, Japan and South Korea. The goal was to meet up-and-coming writers, encourage international collaborations, and develop the new musical theatre scene in Japan.
In the UK this unbelievable opportunity came via MMD, who connected us with the Japanese producers and encouraged us to apply. Toho flew each of us to Japan for the showcase, which took the form of a sold-out concert at the 600 seat Creation Theatre. The Toho producers selected which songs of ours to share, and we also got to know the other writers in the showcase, and had the opportunity to meet a whole range of producers from the Japanese theatre industry.
On the advice of MMD, I applied as a bookwriter/lyricist who works with different composers. After sending over a selection of songs, the one that Toho chose was ‘Fortune’, with music by one of my long-time collaborators, the (absolutely brilliant) composer Elizabeth Charlesworth. It’s a song from our show The Dickens Girls which won BYMT’s New Music Theatre Award back in 2019. Leo’s song was the stunning ‘Mystery to Me’, with music by Stephen Hyde, and Finn’s song was the gorgeous ‘Caledonain Sleeper’.
Needless to say, none of us ever expected to be part of something like this, and it has truly been one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life. I could go on about the wonders of Tokyo, the itinerary of the showcase, about the imposter syndrome (more on this below), the jetlag (brutal), or the food (incredible). But instead I thought I’d gather my thoughts into a few observations about the musical theatre industry that might be helpful for MMD and MTN members. (And if not please skip ahead to a couple food photos at the end!).
- It’s about the long-game
I’m partly writing this for myself, because every time a writing showcase / production / opportunity comes along it’s easy to feel the pressure, and to measure the success of it by the immediate, direct results. Will someone produce my show? Will I get commissioned? Will I get to take part in something like this ever again? But the longer I’ve been writing, the more I’ve realised that this career is not linear.
Sure, sometimes a showcase leads exactly to what you want. But more often it’s that connection you made with a producer who thinks of you in three years’ time; the assistant who remembers you when they become a producer themselves; another creative who becomes a future collaborator. Sometimes it’s just the fact that a thing can go on a CV, and make you look impressive to people who weren’t even there. There was absolutely no way any of us could have predicted that our careers to date would lead to anything like this in the first place. Often the best experiences are the least expected.
- Writers are the same – everywhere in the world
Okay, that was a massive generalisation. But one of the most wonderful things about this was getting to know musical theatre writers from all the different countries. And guess what? For literally every writer, even across languages (we relied heavily on the amazing interpreters who translated for us), there was an immediate connection.
Do you need to be a certain type of person to even decide that you want to write musicals? Does writing within an AABA structure rewire our brains? Or does the instability of this industry worldwide, combined with blind faith that we might write something amazing despite all the odds, shape us in a similar way?
Whatever it is, each of us shared not only a love of musicals, but also the love-hate-pain experience of redrafting a musical 500 times. Plus the terrifying feeling of being a total imposter. Yes. I’m sorry (but also quite relieved) to report that imposter syndrome is incredibly universal.
- (Writing) Polyamory in the UK
As I mentioned, I applied for this showcase as a bookwriter/lyricist who works with different composers depending on the project. So did Leo, whilst Finn writes both music and lyrics while working with different bookwriters. But something I couldn’t help but notice was that the other three countries were represented by whole writing teams, rather than individual writers (although just one writer per team was being flown over, due to funding).
Are the Brits just not very monogamous by nature? Or, does this tell us something about the UK musical theatre industry? If I had to speculate, I’d wonder if it has something to do with the way commercial musicals are often commissioned here; by a theatre company mixing and matching a playwright with a songwriter, or a producer picking a composer from one project and a lyricist from another. This is probably about producers wanting quality control in an unstable landscape, but I’m not sure how beneficial this is to the writers, or the shows.
In my own experience, there are so few paid opportunities that it’s really hard to make a living as a single writing team. Musicals take so long to write and are so infrequently produced that it feels wise to put the writing eggs in multiple baskets. But what would happen if more UK companies commissioned musicals by existing teams? I’d bet that more writing teams would get to grow, learn and develop, and we’d get better musicals as a result.
There are now only 2358 miles left of this flight, and we’re still at 38999 feet. I am regretting my decision not to nap during the flight (it’s occurred to me that I’ll have been awake nearly 28 hours by my bedtime in London) but I already drank half a litre of green tea.
If you’ve made it this far, well done. Here’s to more musicals, and to international collaborations!
To end, I’ll leave you with a few photos, including some of the food that team MMD sampled during our trip, which might well be what some of you most wanted to see anyway!
