Prospero | State of the arts

Theatres are acting locally and streaming globally

How celebrity casting and live-streaming are affecting live theatrical performances

By I.M.

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH as Hamlet, Lindsay Lohan in "Speed the Plow", Nicole Kidman in "Photograph 51": you can barely tread the boards these days without stepping on a star. And while celebrity casting is attracting a new theatre audience, the innovation of live-streaming (screening productions in real-time to cinemas) is spreading the reach of local productions across the world. But even as live theatre merges with the silver screen, opinion is divided on whether this means democratisation of the arts or an erosion of them.

A study conducted in 2014 showed that more people attend London’s plays and musicals than London's Premier League football matches. Live-streaming multiplies the audience numbers during the course of a show’s run: over 4m people have watched National Theatre Live since its inception in 2009. As well as increasing numbers of theatre-goers, there is also an inflation in hype. Tickets to see Mr Cumberbatch in "Hamlet" sold faster than any others in London theatre history, with online queues of 30,000. People camped outside the Barbican theatre in the hopes of securing a seat and, on the first night it was streamed, 225,000 people around the world went to their local cinema to watch it.

How much of this is to do with celebrity casting of course varies. In the case of "Hamlet", at least, it is clear that Benedict Cumberbatch brought his mass-market fan base to the theatre. Lindsay Lohan’s turn in "Speed the Plow" attracted a few spectators primarily there to gawp, as did the prospect of Daniel Radcliffe’s full-frontal nudity in "Equus". When Martin Freeman played Richard III, the audience started clapping as soon as he walked on stage.

Debate about the effect of celebrity casting on theatre isn't new. Usually people bemoan the fact that untrained actors don’t have the stamina to maintain shows, and that opportunities are being taken away from properly trained drama-school leavers. But Mr Cumberbatch put the spotlight on the audience, complaining about people filming his performance on their mobiles, disturbing other viewers and showing disrespect to the actors. This highlighted the worry that celebrity actors bring in rookie audiences who don't know how to behave.

Some of these complaints have merit—people paying £150 ($220) for a seat are justified in not wanting to watch a play through someone else’s mobile phone. But others can be dismissed as snobbery. Theatres have, historically, always been rowdy places. In the 18th century people had physical fights for the best seats, and even riots were not unheard of. And theatres have always relied on the popularity of actors to draw in crowds, whether Richard Burbage, Laurence Olivier or Maggie Smith. "Celebrity casting" when applied to reality-show stars is one thing, but applied to well-known actors it is often a misnomer. Hollywood stars are entitled to cross over from stage to screen, and back again, just as actors always have done. And if the use of big names is making people interested in theatre, isn't that a good thing?

While there’s nothing new about theatre being popular or mainstream—Shakespeare's plays were the mass-market entertainment of his day—it has to be noted that mass-market means something quite different in the globalised world. For a start, much larger sums of money are involved. Alternative cinema, as live-streamed productions are called, is an industry worth £12.5m in Britain, and growing fast. And usually whenever the arts meet commercialisation, something has to give.

New York's Metropolitan Opera is a good example. It was the first big organisation to stream its productions, starting in 2006. An insider who has been working there for seven seasons believes live-streaming has been too successful. Because it is profitable and attracting a new audience, shows are now designed with streaming rather than stage in mind. Close-up, high-definition camera images are changing priorities. Stage makeup, traditionally used to emphasise expression to the seats at the back, is being exchanged for a pared-back, natural style that is better suited to film. Casting has been also been affected, as the performers with the best operatic voices have been sidelined for the more photogenic. There are also concerns that the new audiences, used to cinema-ticket prices, won't ever be happy to stump up for the far more expensive theatre tickets, so the bigger audience isn’t translating to a fuller house. The streamed production is becoming its own art form with its own following, both dependent on and strangely divorced from the original.

Theatre and opera are different, but it is easy to see how similar trends might emerge. Producers already try to get the biggest names they can involved in a show. With a production’s reach being magnified by live-streaming, there is even more of an incentive. While it would be a shame if theatre became an extension of Hollywood, it is important not to protest too much when the arts evolve in a way that makes them accessible to more people, especially when ticket prices show no sign of dropping. Live-streaming has allowed millions of people to see the world’s best ballet, opera and theatre in their local cinema and get the best seats in the house for a fraction of the price of a normal ticket. National Theatre Live tells Prospero that studies done so far into audience demographics show that the arts are now reaching a younger and less affluent audience, as well as older people who might not be able to get to a theatre. Streaming, in other words, is less a threat than a hope, doing more than any other innovation to tackle the elitism and the lack of access that plague the performing arts today.

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