Exporting the American Dream -- the Musical One, That Is
There is more theatre playing tonight in Austin, Texas, than in the whole of Sweden. Most of the serious theatre companies, including the many subsidised national and municipal theatre companies, happily follow the rest of Europe on vacation. The most respected companies -- arguably the best ones -- simply shut down from sometime in June until early September. Holiday resorts feature farcees, broad musical comedy presentations or historical dramas, a bit like those homegrow epics that popped up from the 1980s around the United States to celebrate Daniel Boone, Davy Crocket, and other mythic heroes.
The Swedes are doing a production of Macbeth -- on the island of Götland, that beach-and-restaurant destination that fills with the Swedes unable to afford vacation trips to the Mediterranean or to more exotic locations.
But not far away, in Hamburg, Germany, the summer fare is surging with American mythos. Disney's The Lion King has been playing for months in a specially built theatre in the harbor district across from central Hamburg. Access is by special ferry across the Elbe ship channel. Tickets range from about $72 to about $175 and the theatre has been packed -- many days for both afternoon and evening shows. Elsewhere this summer there's a similar massive production of Disney's Tarzan (word is that the show's not that great but the leading actor is as hunky as Johnny Weismuller). The Wall Street Journal has just done a piece on the hugely profitable business of exporting U.S. musical theatre:
The business of exporting musicals abroad has never been bigger
From The Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2010 (via ArtsJournal daily and via Thomas Cott's "You've Cott Mail!"
At least 13 major productions of American or British musicals are running in Japan. Foreign productions of "The Lion King" have grossed nearly $2.2 billion to date, almost three times the show's Broadway haul. As producers discover that they can reap huge profits overseas -- sometimes even turning a Broadway flop into a foreign hit -- more American shows are enlisting foreign investors and granting international rights at premium prices. International presenters now may pay $200,000 in advance to stage a big U.S. production in a major foreign market, at least double what they were spending a decade ago in many cases. Producers say they're seeing interest from territories that 10 years ago never thought of Broadway. Exporting Broadway shows is a tricky proposition, however. It's not just a question of translating the dialogue and lyrics into the local language. There's also the thorny question of conveying humor and pop-culture references, and trying to gauge what audiences will respond to in vastly different cultures. The musical-export business took off in the 1980s [with] "Cats" and "Les Misérables." Now, the business is expanding as not just the big hits are heading overseas to new territories. That's thanks in part to a shift in focus by producers, who in recent years have moved deeper into markets such as Asia, South America and South Africa. Cameron Mackintosh is opening 35 to 40 shows world-wide in the next four years, twice the amount of a decade ago. Internationally, as on Broadway, the theater industry is weathering the recession by either relying on a handful of blockbusters, or by staging smaller and more nimble productions that run at lower costs. Even at home, Broadway shows today are typically designed with a global audience in mind. About 1 in 5 theatergoers were international visitors in the 2008-09 season, the highest proportion on record.
And then there's the German love affair with the American western.
Most Americans have never heard of "Old Shatterhand" and his Apache blood brother Winnetou. In the late 19th century German writer Karl May had terrific success with romantic adventure tales set all over the world, including a series set in the American Far West. After the Second World War, German cinema and theatre dramatized May's westerns, and an outdoor Karl May drama has played every summer since 1952. As the German-language video from Hamburg Magazine demonstrates, this year it's Half Blood, a rootin' tootin' spectacle featuring eighty actors,well known actors from German film and television, twenty horses, a railroad, a stagecoach, a ghost town, explosions, fights, fire and even the arrival of the cavalry flying the star spangled banner . Promotors estimate that during the season from June 25 until September 5 more than 8000 German holidaymakers, mostly families, will attend this summer's spectacle in Schleswig-Holstein.
As Winnetou the Apache (Erol Sander) comments to reporter Lars Bessel, " It's terrific -- with real horses, real explosions, real drama -- the kids are absolutely amazed. The Americans have their Walt Disney; we Germans have our Karl May!"
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