Too Big, Too Soon? The Risks Of Premiering New Musicals at Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Written by Daz Gale

So far in 2026, my Sundays have mostly been spent at Theatre Royal Drury Lane watching a series of one-night-only concerts. These one-off events are becoming increasingly frequent, and can be an exceptional night at the theatre, such as last month's sensational charity concert Love Life. However, they are also being used as a platform for new musicals, and there is a real danger to that. It is a risky strategy and one that didn’t pay off for the most recent attempt, Sea Witch. I wanted to dive into the common mistakes these new musicals are making in the hope that at least one person will think twice before bringing their next new musical there.

These concerts have been the subject of debate recently, partly due to the high prices that are being charged for them. I have always been a defender of these concerts, and believe when they are done right, they can create a truly special night at the theatre - a chance to see a dream cast together on a stage this show might not usually get a chance to perform at. It is high risk, high reward, but then that risk can also be devastating to the future success of said show.

THE FOUR TYPES OF CONCERT

There are four types of concerts we see at these venues:

1 - Your standard musical theatre performer solo show, such as Jeremy Jordan, Bernadette Peters or upcoming ones from Megan Hilty and Sierra Boggess.

2 - A group concert featuring multiple performers with a certain theme, such as the recent Love Life and To Maury, With Love concerts and the incredible My Favorite Things, celebrating 80 years of Rodgers & Hammerstein several years ago.

These two are pretty harmless and are almost the theatrical equivalent of a pop star playing the O2. Production value and rehearsal times are usually decent for these.

The next two are the one-night-only musical theatre concerts:

3 - A special concert staging of an existing musical performed by a dream cast of musical theatre icons and celebrities, such as last month's Once On This Island and recent concerts of Oklahoma and Songs For A New World.

While these shows can suffer from some technical issues and not enough rehearsal time, they are a much safer bet to stage at large venues than the fourth type:

4 - A brand new musical enjoying its world premiere in a concert form at a large venue such as Theatre Royal Drury Lane or the London Palladium.

This is the type of concert I want to talk about in detail.

WHY SCALE MATTERS

Why do producers and creatives stage brand new musicals on such a big scale? I admire the ambition, and it shows they have a great confidence in their work, but on many occasions, they overestimate the appeal, having failed to do enough work on the show in the lead-up to this huge premiere. Being too close to the project itself, they won’t see the flaws with the piece that the audience will pick up. Quite often, they have skipped a few steps of a closed industry presentation, a public workshop and a small-scale tryout piece, instead coming in raw to the 2000 capacity Theatre Royal Drury Lane to debut a brand new piece of work that nobody has any expectation or awareness of prior to attending. 

Often, ticket sales are incredibly sluggish initially, as prices are higher for this one-off performance, and star casting is used to boost sales and excitement. But why should people come and see a show that nobody knows? It is as high-risk for the audience as it is for the people putting on the show.

The results are mixed, but can often be catastrophic, as was the case with this week’s Sea Witch - undoubtedly the biggest failure of them all. A similar thing happened a couple of years ago with the new musical Little Piece Of You, building on some online buzz with a staged concert at Drury Lane, again to underwhelming results, while concerts of Figaro and Mozart: Her Story were also met with disappointing results. Even when the response is more middling, such as the recent Jo - The Little Women Musical and 2024’s Wild About You, it still sets a dangerous precedent. If the ambition of these one-off concerts is to raise awareness of the show and secure investment for future life, a negative to mixed response is hardly going to encourage anyone to support the show in its next stages.

I keep mentioning high risk, and it can’t be understated the damage that can be done from 2000 people leaving a theatre, saying “What the Hell was that?”. The interval chatter at Sea Witch was incredibly telling, as was the increasing number of empty seats in Act Two, following those who left in the interval, and even continued to leave as the show progressed. As somebody who is always rooting for the success of new musicals, I find it incredibly frustrating that anyone would put themselves in a position to be open to such intense scrutiny, especially when it could have been easily avoided. There may well have been a good show in Sea Witch somewhere, but will it be given the chance to have a future life elsewhere?

THE DEVELOPMENT GAP

Creating a new musical can be a long, tedious and frustrating process, but it is a crucial one to the success of your show. Huge hits like Hamilton and Six didn’t happen overnight - they were nurtured with time, developed in each run and allowed to progress naturally. The classic phrase “Don’t run before you can walk” is the key here - why skip a few steps, when those baby steps are integral to the future success of any show. Rehearsed readings, industry presentations, closed workshops, public workshops, tryout runs - these tools are all there for a reason, and to avoid all of these puts the creatives in an unnecessarily vulnerable position. I sometimes get invited to these closed workshops, and can offer my input and feedback there and then - that doesn’t come from me being a reviewer, but as a theatre lover who can spot something that isn’t working from a mile away. Had Sea Witch invited anyone to a workshop beforehand, they would have warned them of their biggest flaws, instead of allowing them to proceed with showing these on a big scale to a packed audience.

Sometimes a workshop will take place for a show never to be heard of again. Sometimes, one show will get multiple workshops. Sometimes, these shows will go from strength to strength, jumping to bigger stages and audiences before it finally gets the full run it has always been aiming for. Of course, there is no guarantee of success, and some of these shows will still open to poor reviews and slow sales, even closing early in severe examples. That is the nature of the industry - the risk is always there, but the frustration here is the need to put yourself under more risk than is necessary.

WHEN IT WORKS

The day before attending Sea Witch, I went to the latest workshop run of Todrick Hall’s original musical Midnight at Sadler’s Wells East. This show was not open to review (another needless risk some of these one-night-only concerts put themselves through), but it really was like night and day when compared to the other. Todrick had done a closed workshop for the musical last year, and then took the surprising decision to open the musical as a public ticketed workshop for a two-week run in late 2025, listening to feedback and retooling the show as he went on. Three months later, it is back for a second developmental run, where audience members can get a unique look behind the curtain as the show evolves and grows in time. Though I was impressed when I saw it in November, certain aspects that didn’t work well have now been revised, leading to a much more solid production that could effortlessly transfer to a West End stage in its current form. However, Todrick is in no rush to do this, and there is a real admiration in that. Fully understanding the need to be patient and keep working on the show, even when it feels like no more can be done, is part of what gives a show the best chance to succeed. When this show does have its inevitable future life, it will be because of how careful the creative process has been,

Another example is Redcliffe, a new musical written by West End star Jordan Luke Gage. This musical premiered its first Act as part of MTFest, an incredible platform to shine a light on new musicals, making clear they are in the developmental stage but generating buzz and giving the creatives a chance to see how the show resonates firsthand. Shortly after this one-act presentation at the now sadly closed Turbine Theatre, Jordan staged the full show as a ticketed workshop at The Other Palace Studio, actively seeking feedback and ensuring the fully staged version will be the best it can be. The care he has taken in this process leaves me confident about how it will be received when it makes its fully staged debut at Southwark Playhouse in May. Though the risk will always be there, and the subjective nature of theatre means that not everyone is going to love every show, taking these necessary steps minimises the risk substantially.

Bonnie & Clyde seemed to start the trend for big concerts at Theatre Royal Drury Lane several years ago, but this was a show that already had a large fanbase thanks to its (admittedly short-lived) Broadway run, and had the full West End transfer locked in before the first performance began. Your Lie In April was a much more unknown entity, but followed from the success of the well-received Death Note concert - a show that is about to get its fully staged premiere in London this summer. However, a positive response to Your Lie In April led to an all too swift West End transfer that, in retrospect, was too quick, and saw the show closing early. This shows that the risk remains even when a new concert is well-received. Though theatre is a fast-moving industry, I believe it will wait for the right show, and taking the time to nurture and develop is pivotal to its long-lasting success. Something Rotten is another strong example, whose long-awaited UK debut (after a Birmingham run cancelled through Covid) was a rapturously received concert at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, leading to its fully staged UK premiere in Manchester later this year.

A BETTER MODEL

If you are going to debut a new musical in concert form, does it need to be on such a high-profile stage? Building a buzz is important, but Theatre Royal Drury Lane is unforgiving. Its scale means that any shortcomings in your show are amplified in a way they wouldn’t be in a far smaller venue. The Other Palace has two spaces that are perfect for trying out new musicals, and there are many other amazing spaces in London and all over the UK. I understand why producers and creatives want to say their show played such an iconic stage, but is it really worth the risk?

Another pitfall of these one-off concerts is the short rehearsal time everyone has. This is to be expected, given the people who are coming together to star in it, especially if they are currently in another show, but I have had performers mention on more than one occasion that they desperately needed more time for the show. Most commonly, these concerts get 5 days or one week maximum to hone in the concert, which isn’t enough time, especially given how staged many of these concerts tend to be. These concerts can also be prone to sound and light problems, literally painting the show in a bad light and frustrating an audience who have paid a fortune for a ticket only to struggle to hear anything.

If you are going to play a venue the size of Theatre Royal Drury Lane, it may seem obvious, but you need to fill that stage. A concert may not have much staging, and understandably so, but it should, at the very least, have a band or orchestra. To play a venue of this size with a stage of that size with no musicians is crazy, though the recent concert is the only time I have seen this happen again. I would hope others learn from this error and don’t make the same mistake. Also, never underestimate your sightlines from every seat. If people in the balcony can’t see what is going on through some perplexing staging choices, you are setting yourself up to fail even more. Similarly, if any seats are going to have a restricted view due to your choices, these need to be sold as such.

THE AUDIENCE RESPONDS

This is a subject that provokes extreme reactions in people, so I was keen to gauge opinion on social media. These are some of the responses I received:

“Concerts have a place on the theatre scene, but I’d like for them to be given the time they deserve to rehearse and go through tech runs, rather than being treated as a bit of an easy money maker. The quality varies so much. I’ve seen some incredible concerts and some that really shouldn’t have been staged”

“We are oversaturated by concerts. It was good after COVID, but now it’s a quick money grab”

“It’s normally the same people cast, thrown together at the last moment and in huge theatres. Then, when they don’t sell, producers wonder why people don’t want to watch them”

“Audience members are duped into thinking they’re getting a well-honed, professional production worthy of premium West End prices. Call it a workshop and charge accordingly”

RIGHT OF REPLY FROM A PRODUCER

Because it is important to always balance out things like this, I spoke to a producer who has put on some of these concerts, though has chosen to remain anonymous, giving them a right of reply:

“These are not cash grabs as far as I have experienced. They do not make money and are about testing the market.

The issue with some of these recent new musical concerts is the financials compared to Broadway - whereby a workshop presentation of a new work in NYC would cost a few hundred thousand dollars, US producers are seeing the benefit of spending a fraction of that to play Theatre Royal Drury Lane, and get some money back in Box Office and Theatre Tax Relief to help develop the piece that they would have completely lost in an NYC workshop.

There are a few producers that can bring these special concerts to these venues that truly care about the production”

TO SUMMARISE

Feedback is crucial. Collaboration is integral. Sticking your head in the sand and hoping for the best is what leads to obvious mistakes happening.

My message to anyone looking to put on a new musical on such a huge scale is - are you sure you're ready? 

Are you confident it is the best version it can be?

Have you gone through the right steps and sought feedback along the way?

Are you certain it is ready for an audience of that size?

Are you aware of the disastrous consequences if you are wrong?

Not every new musical that debuts on a stage as large as Theatre Royal Drury Lane fails, but it is a risk that doesn’t feel necessary to take. I will always enjoy supporting new musicals and will continue to do so as long as I can, whether that is going to see them in the smallest spaces up and down the country, watching new works in workshops, presentations and reading or even sitting in the audience at Theatre Royal Drury Lane as the next one inevitably takes the stage. My only ask is please make sure you have put in the appropriate work and taken the right steps to ensure your show doesn’t sink before it has even started.

This article was written from a good place, and not to dampen anyone’s spirits or insult previous work. Championing new work is one of the greatest joys I have on this website, and seeing something fail spectacularly is incredibly disappointing. My hope is that anyone reading this will think very carefully when plotting their move to ensure their show is given the best chance of success possible. When that happens, you can count on me being in that audience, cheering them on.