What’s in a name? West End casting directors raise concerns about direction of big stars | stage

From Ncuti Gatwa in Born With Teeth to Alicia Vikander in The Lady From the Sea and Susan Sarandon in Mary Page Marlowe, there is no shortage of star celebrities being cast for the West End at the moment.

It’s a phenomenon that’s happening in subsidized theater too: Indhu Rupasingham’s inaugural season at the National Theater features the likes of screen favorites Paul Mescal and Nicola Coughlan.

But over the past few years, the tendency to cast film and TV stars on stage has become a point of contention in an industry still reeling from funding cuts and changing audience habits after the Covid pandemic. While some believe big names can help attract audiences and sell tickets, others say they prevent risk-averse theaters from taking a chance on smaller productions with unknown actors.

The debate was reignited this week when Nadine Rennie, co-president of the Casting Directors Guild, warned that the trend was “killing” the industry, and medium-sized theaters would be the first to disappear – despite being the place where the household names of the future cut their teeth.

Speaking at the conference hosted by Rada’s Spotlight, Rennie compared the proliferation of celebrity stage names to “feeding a baby too much sugar”. “It kills audiences’ minds. I hear audience members saying all the time, ‘I don’t know anyone involved in this.’ Or that they’re not excited about a new play by an emerging writer.”

Jill Green, a casting director for shows including The Devil Wears Prada, The Great Gatsby and War Horse, said many casting directors are increasingly being asked to cast big-name actors, with some theaters refusing to commit to booking a show until a well-known name is attached.

“This makes it more difficult for new writing and non-headline productions to secure a place against star-led shows,” she said. “However, the real question is: What actually constitutes a ‘big name’ that can sell that many tickets? The pool of talent that really moves the needle at the box office isn’t quite Olympic-sized.”

Her sentiments were echoed by those of the National Theater’s casting director, Alistair Comer, who told the Spotlight conference that celebrity casting was the “biggest driver now” for audiences, putting huge pressure on the industry. “We’re all chasing the same very small group of people,” he said.

But having a star on the bill is not without its benefit. Green said the theater provided a “wonderful opportunity” for audiences to see an artist they admire take on a role that really suits their skill set. “It can also help fill homes, which in turn maintains a lot of jobs on and off stage,” she added. “But ticket prices have become a major concern – if prices rise to exorbitant levels, we risk alienating audiences who simply cannot afford to go.”

This has become evident in the United States, where the shift toward casting stars has become particularly dramatic. Ticket prices for the Broadway premiere of George Clooney’s “Good Night, and Good Luck” reached $800 (£600), while tickets for Denzel Washington’s “Othello” reached $1,000.

“Would I celebrate a world where my theater is packed, but every ticket is £300, which is what happens on Broadway?” “This is where mathematics can lead us: theater as a pastime for the elite,” Nadia Fall, artistic director of the Young Vic Theatre, recently told The Guardian.

Theater critic Arifa Akbar says there is a certain “circus” element in casting star actors. “A lot of people come to see the star rather than the play,” she said. “It’s a way to bring in money and attract spectators, sure, but it’s not a financial — or creative — solution for the industry in the long term because the demographic buying for tickets to star-led shows isn’t going to come when there’s no star in sight.”

“It also trumps nurturing dedicated theatrical talent, not born off the back of a Netflix series. And shows can still go seriously wrong, no matter how top-notch an actor, as we saw in Sigourney Weaver’s strangely wooden turn in The Tempest in the West End last year.”

Kenny Wax, producer of plays and musicals including Six the Musical, The Play That Goes Wrong and Why Am I So Single?, stressed that seeing shows with major stars were rare — and sometimes transformative — experiences.

He said: “When Tom Holland was cast in Romeo and Juliet, it was an opportunity to attract young people to Shakespeare who would never have gone to see this play otherwise. Kenneth Branagh will return to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon for the first time in over 30 years next year; it’s really exciting for young people to have the chance to see him live on stage.”

There are “a lot of theaters and a lot of shows throughout the year,” Wax said. “This summer we had Noël Coward’s The Comedy About Spies, which had no big TV or film stars, but sold out 100% for 20 weeks. You don’t need a star. Quality and cream always tend to rise to the top.”

For Wax, London continues to strike a good balance between new work, risk and big stars – especially compared to New York, where “you can’t do it without big stars”.

“The American system is completely broken right now. It’s incredibly expensive to stage a play or a musical in New York. ‘A Play That Goes Wrong’ cost about £250,000 in London, but when it opened in New York eight years ago it cost $4 million. With the same ensemble. The climate has become more difficult. Since Covid, 46 musicals have opened on Broadway, only three of which have been Profitable – including our sixth offering.”