listed buildings and venues

[flip13]

hey guys!

 

Do you think that because a venue is a listed building it holds back aproduction from its full potential? for example 'Shrek' in Duruy Lane is notusing the same set as it did on Broadway. It is using a simpler set like the touringset instead (this is what I have heard from word of mouth).Is this because it was a listed building?

Also wen LOTR was on at Drury Lane there was an issue with the stage that was put in as it ment taking out the origanl stage revolve and victorian tec mush under the stage.

Is this holding back theatre too much turning the Wet End Theatre in to a dying industry?

 

 

(p.s I AM A STUDENT B-) and therefore very new to the industry and missing out a

few years of the real deal. It would be nice to see your opinions on the

subject, not on me or my lack of knowledge)

[ImagineerTom]

You've made an awful lot of assumptions that are completely wrong....

 

Listed theatres aren't any different in terms of paperwork and cost to remodel than non listed theatres

 

Shrek was re-worked for financial reasons not because of the listed status of the theatres

 

there wasn't an "issue" with removing the stage to put LOTR in - it was entirely expected and predicted. If that show/set had gone in to ANY theatre the deck would have had to be removed.

 

the TR drury lane didn't have a revolve and (as far as I can tell) never has had) - it's traps, bridges and cuts were removed for LOTR and were comprehensively serviced and rebuilt so they now work better than ever (though are currently under the shrek stage deck) there are videos and articles about them you can find by googling.

 

Listed building status isn't holding back any commercial theatre in any production aspect you're thinking of

 

West end isn't a dying industry (far from it)

 

 

[the kid]

If the rebuild they did for Wizard of Oz is anything to go by, I don't think its any stop. That is in the Palladium which is a grade 2*

[flip13]

Cool, thanks for ur feed back.

 

your right it was the LORT stage that was a revolve not the original. And I do assumeway to much

 

as Shrek was cut down because of finance do you think that it’s because weare not doing as well as Broadway? (these are questions not an opinions)

I think dying industry was a bad way toput it, but do you think we are not doing as well as productions in America aredoing? Ticket prices in the west end have gone up and according to a DissertationI read from last year, ticket sales have gone down.

 

 

In Las Vegas they have a show called KA (cirque du soleil) and theygutted the hole theatre (MGM hotel and casino) and then re-built it round ther epically cool stage, I havenot yet come across anything like that in London Venues and personally believe, thismay be due to not being allowed to build on or in the buildings themselvesbecause they are listed. When they painted the Adelphi Theatreblack for Love never dies they had a £20,000 fine on their hands because it wasan art deco building.

Do you think we should keep theatre as they are to preserve our history for thefuture to see, or knock some down to build bigger and better venues?

 

once again thanks for ur feed back

 

[pjb304]

The Apollo Victoria is a listed building, and was even in the '80s when starlight express was installed. Given that Starlight installed a race track around the entire theatre, there obviously weren't any overly restrictive measures in place. (I had nothing to do with the show, just saw it and was impressed by what they had done)

[the kid]

"us" not doing as well is subjective I think, somes hows will be bigger some smaller. How you quantify "well" is a wide range. Gross/nett earnings in a year? number of people watching pear year? Mean number of people per show? income PER show (I mean TODAY not per run in a theatre)

 

You dont need to know much to know that if you want something in vegas you knock it down and rebuild. Literally. If you read the LSI on KA they had the money, and wanted to do it. Lance Burton had his stage rebuilt to accommodate traps and lifts he wanted, because he had the pull.

 

If you were going to do a show like KA where would you put it? Come to think of it why ? why would you want to totally refit a classic theatre with more age and history than all of Las Vegas combined for a show that is not designed to go in there? it would be like a close up magic show in the o2.

 

 

Spiderman spent a massive amount of the budget in blasting out the bedrock of the theatre to make space.

[Bryson]

I have to say, having been through a Listed Building modification application, that I found English Heritage considerably more forward-thinking and reasonable than I ever expected. They realise that the best way to preserve buildings is to have people use them, and all of their objections were thoughtful and easily complied with. It really isn't the hassle people imagine it is.

 

(Knocking them down and starting again is another ball of wax, mind.)