It’s been a winning formula for a couple of years now…

Take a hit West End musical, and transform it into a high budget glitzy movie starring Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones or Pears Brosnan. Then sit back on your private yacht with the champagne and Honeyz all around, and watch the $$$$ roll in.

I can almost hear the unscrupulous movie producers’ distorted minds ticking over through the din of cocaine-induced jitters and gurning: “It worked with Chicago, now let’s do it with The Producers. It kind of worked with The Producers, now let’s do it with Mamma Mia!. And by God did it work with Mamma Mia!, let’s do it with Wicked next fall.”

So basically this concept works out great for all involved, Catherine Zeta-Jones is happy because she becomes even more worthy of her marriage to ‘alleged’ sex addict Michael Douglas; the movie producers are happy because they can pay the tab on their lives of sin and debauchery; and the shows are grateful for the additional interest, because there is no denying that movie exposure puts fresh pink booty on seats.

But an interesting role reversal has been taking place recently, because now it seems that kind and virtuous West End theatre producers (who seem in most ways to be the direct opposites of their movie counterparts) are returning the favour, and using some of cinemas best-loved offerings as inspiration for new shows. The first of these being Rain Man at the Apollo Theatre, based on the Oscar-winning film staring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, closely followed by Edward Scissorhands in December (although it was actually on stage a while back, too), and an exciting production of Sister Act proposed for the New Year. Read more

My name is Benjamin Smyth III and on behalf of DiscountTheatre.com I would like to say a big fat welcome. You’re currently reading the first historic post of the long awaited (by us) Discount Theatre Blog, where you will learn about all things London Theatre, filtered through my own personal worldview. (I was deliberately vague there to leave room for veering off at strange tangents.)

It feels great to be jabbing at these little keys talking to you for the first time and I would Appreciate / Encourage / Demand with a stick that you feed back on anything we deliver in the following posts. Even if you think I’m being an old trollop!

So what can you expect from this blog?

After many all-night brainstorming sessions and piles of chocolate-covered coffee beans eaten in the vain attempt to stay alert and virile, we have decided to focus the offerings here around the following interesting and alluring parameters: Read more