More Olympic Woes

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 2/13/12 at 8:43am

Opera impresario Raymond Gubbay has become the latest Theatreland figure to express his concerns about the potential effect of the London 2012 Olympics on theatre attendance in the capital.

Gubbay has said that he will not be staging any shows over the summer because of the Olympics, claiming that “90% of the regular bookings aren’t coming”.

He told The Daily Telegraph: “There is a lot of concern about what will happen to theatres this summer. The traditional audience isn’t coming. We’ve planned accordingly. We’re not doing anything at all during the Olympics, because it is not a good thing to do. We are putting on Porgy and Bess at the Coliseum at the beginning of July then battening down the hatches until the end of September.
“The history of the Olympics elsewhere indicates that people who do come to watch the sport aren’t necessarily going to fill the theatres. We decided to play safe and opt out.”
His warnings echo similar concerns voiced by composer, producer and theatre owner Andrew Lloyd Webber, who had warned of a “bloodbath” for London theatre during the Olympics.

Other producers, though, have been more upbeat about Theatreland’s prospects.
Society of London Theatre president Mark Rubinstein said: “Shows that have looked at their bookings - this is the long-running shows that you’d expect to do well in the Olympics - are significantly up in the Olympic weeks. Of course we know that the strong titles, the core shows, are going to be the ones that people are going to book, because they have a reputation. It’s going to be different - some shows are going to do well, some aren’t. But I think some shows are going to do very well.”

Updated On: 2/13/12 at 08:43 AM

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 2/13/12 at 8:59am

Raymond Gubbay: I'm shutting up shop for the Olympics

The impresario whose "popera" upsets the purists says he is only giving the people they want. But he's the first West End promoter to say he won't put on a show during the Games.

Raymond Gubbay laughs a lot, even when he's being insulted. "All manner of insults have been thrown at me down the years," says the veteran impresario, who stages lavish arena shows that upset the purists. "They make me feel I must be doing something right. Ha!"
We are at the Royal Albert Hall, where Gubbay is about to put on a spectacular new production of 'Aida' staged in-the-round with a huge cast and a set that recreates ancient Egypt. Pharoahs, slaves, pyramids, the whole nine cubits.
The fans will come in their tens of thousands, but Gubbay is bracing himself for another wave of criticism from those who say he's crass and vulgar and only in it for the money.
They call his events "popera" and blame him for the dumbing down of a high art form – not to mention classical music in general – with his light shows, pumped-up sound systems and sopranos in stilettos.
He just shrugs and smiles. "All I can say is that the audiences keep coming. People are not stupid. They vote with their feet. If they didn't feel they were getting good value, they wouldn't come."

The souped-up version of Verdi that opens in 11 days time is the most ambitious of the many shows Gubbay will put on this year, but even he knows his limits. That's why it will be over long before summer comes.
Today he reveals that he's shutting up shop for the Olympics, and staging no shows while the Games are on.
"There is a lot of concern about what will happen to theatres this summer. The traditional audience isn't coming. We've planned accordingly. We're not doing anything at all during the Olympics, because it is not a good thing to do. We are putting on 'Porgy and Bess' at the Coliseum at the beginning of July then battening down the hatches until the end of September."
His fellow entrepreneur Andrew Lloyd Webber has warned of "a bloodbath of a summer" for London theatres and suggested that some of his own may go dark on key Olympic nights such as the opening ceremony. But Gubbay is the first major West End player to declare he is staying away completely during the Games.
"Ninety per cent of the regular theatre bookings aren't coming.
The history of the Olympics elsewhere indicates that people who do come to watch the sport aren't necessarily going to fill the theatres. We decided to play safe and opt out."
He's even leaving London for the summer. "I'm going to my house in France to get completely away from it all. There are roads being closed around Covent Garden, where I live, because of the beach volleyball at Horseguards Parade. I thought, 'That's the final straw.'
Ha!" Gubbay cocks his head to one side when he listens, but mostly he talks. The 65-year-old is dressed in a collar, jacket and tie as we sit in the rather grand Clive Room at the Royal Albert Hall.
"We're giving people a spectacle, something to cheer them up. I've seen so many bad times, economically, in all my 45 years of putting on shows but this feels more severe than before," says Gubbay, who started with a couple of singers and a piano when he was just out of his teens. "There is an air of depression around. In times like this, entertainment becomes important. We're here to lift people out of their everyday lives."
There are 72,000 tickets to sell, ranging from £21 to £75 for a box seat. "We try to keep it in line with a West End show. You can pay as much as £250 to go the Royal Opera House."
Gubbay also stages Christmas concerts and two Classical Spectaculars with lasers, pyrotechnics and real cannons at the Royal Albert Hall every year. Then there is a show he has put together for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, hosted by the former royal correspondent Jennie Bond and featuring the likes of 'Land of Hope and Glory' as well as music from hit comedies such as 'Dad's Army'.
Some will sniff, but others will say it sounds like more fun than the official concert at Buckingham Palace. Does he wish he was involved in that? "Ha! They never ask me to do those things."
Gubbay was raised in Golders Green, the son of an accountant called David who played the violin and a mother called Ida who was gifted on the piano. "She could have gone on to a professional career, if not for the war. She was the superior musician. Sorry Dad."
After a brief attempt to become an accountant, Gubbay ended up in an interview with the promoter Victor Hochhauser. "There were three questions: 'Where did you go to school? Are you a Jewish boy? Can you start on Monday?'
"I stayed there 10 months, 28 days and 12 hours. It was like a finishing school for promoters, I learned all these tricks of the trade – but when I was 20 I started out on my own with £50 from my Dad and £50 he persuaded the bank to lend me. I put on Gilbert and Sullivan evenings and songs from the shows. Somehow it carried on. I never looked back."
He graduated to shows at the South Bank, then the Barbican Centre when it opened 30 years ago next month.
His first arena show was a co-production of 'Turandot' with the Royal Opera House at Wembley Arena in 1992. It was an experiment that failed. "I went to my board and said, 'The good news is, we've lost under a million pounds.
The bad news is, it's not by much.' But the experience did make me think we could take it to the Albert Hall and make it work."
'Turandot', 'Carmen' and 'Madam Butterfly' played to packed houses, even if the critics hated them. One wrote: "This is a man who is not afraid of the popular, not trammelled by notions of high art – or even of good taste."
That attitude softened, he is glad to say. "There has been an acceptance that this is a valid way of doing things, for a limited range of works. It is the real thing. This is kosher opera."
Meanwhile, the Opera House was in chaos. Gubbay applied for the job of running – and saving – the place but did not even get an interview.
"I had upset them so much so that I even got crossed off the list of people who were invited to pay for a ticket for the opening of the new house. Tony Hall went on to do a great job there. These days, we're very friendly."
They might not be in a minute. Traditionally, the voice of an opera singer should not be amplified but allowed to ring true in the auditorium. Gubbay has to amplify his singers. Purists say that isn't opera – but his response is to accuse some of the great venues of cheating.
"If the opera houses are always honest, how many times have they used an audio enhancement when they don't always put their hands up?"
The singer Alfie Boe said in January: "They've used microphones in opera houses. The Royal Opera has but they'll never admit it. English National Opera have too, but they'll never admit it either because they're too proud and too stupid."
Is Gubbay also saying they are using microphones to enhance the performance of their singers, but not telling the audiences? "This is not something that is totally alien to traditional opera houses. I'm not saying they use it all the time but it is certainly growing.
Singers are in huge demand on the opera circuit and there is a pressure to conserve the voice, and to give a performance that is really going to fill the auditorium. If you've got a busy schedule ... it does seem to be on the increase."
One reason Gubbay can talk so freely, and laugh so often, is that he has become a wealthy man after selling his company to a subsidiary of Sony for £10 million. "At my age it was a nice thing to fall out of the sky. Just before the financial crisis, so the timing was excellent. Ha! I can't say more. Ha ha ha ..."
The divorcee now has more time to spend with his daughters and grandchildren in Kent and Ireland, but he will carry on as chairman for another two years. So what's his response now to those who say it is all about the money, not the music?
"Everybody has to earn their living. If I really wanted to make a lot of money I would have been a banker, getting a huge bonus. But I don't think I'd be very happy. I'm lucky enough to have earned my living from something I really like."
Can he name a piece of music that really moves him? "Oh yes. I always cry at the end of 'Madame Butterfly'. You can't avoid being affected. You get drawn in."
It's one of his, of course. Within a heart beat he is talking about the seats, not the arias. "If you see a large audience come in and wait for the show you have created, that is very satisfying. It gives me a real buzz. So does the number of people who say their first experience of classical music as a child was at the Spectacular we put on. Whatever the insults, I'm proud of what I do. Ha!"

The Daily Telegraph