You can't always get what you want

As you may have gathered I'm full of musings at the moment, the latest of which is what we look for in a good piece of theatre (or theater if you're from this side of the pond). I personally look for good performances, strong narrative, inventiveness, playfulness and a whole host of other ness's that make me connect with the performer and the show. However, it would seem this is not what everyone looks for. The problem with online reviews is that some folks take it upon themselves to post comments, so if you're a curious soul with time on his hands (as I am) then you read these comments. From these, it would appear that a portion of audience look for glitzy set (with set changes), live music instead of recorded, and something that is basically familiar, that they recognise and can go home going "oh wasn't that nice, as nice as the other nice things we've seen this year".

Unfortunately "Gruffalo" doesn't offer set changes, live music, or familiarity. It offers simple story telling theatre where 3 actors play around and perform the tale of The Gruffalo for 55 minutes. It is a small scale show doing big things, it started in school halls and hasn't changed much in 8 years of being performed in New York, Hong Kong, Dubai, and a million other places. The fact it hasn't changed is part of its charm, the fact that these 3 actors could be on stage, in your front room, in a school hall, its the performances and the story that make it.


That is not to say that people aren't enjoying the show, we're getting great responses every night, but me being British I choose to focus on the 3 negative things I've read other than the hundreds of people cheering and clapping. It would seem that there is a section of people though who prefer something that looks a million dollars, sounds a million dollars, but they couldn't care what actually happens on stage. In this country it seems the word "budget" is a bad thing, necessity breeds invention is not a recognised trait, and perhaps that goes someway to displaying the problem Mr Obama's new selfless America will face. Its all well and good saying you'll make sacrifices, accept difficult decisions, but there will always be a section of American's who will choose the soulless expensive option as opposed to the inventive budget path, and Gruffalo aint for those folks.

Perhaps it is telling that every one of these comments says "my child loved it", and it may just be that child hasn't yet developed commercial wants or needs and is just happy to be happy. They won't stay that way unfortunately.



Alan