A report has been commissioned which will decide whether the UK’s first National Centre for Musical Theatre can be set up in the West Midlands.
Arts Council England, Birmingham City Council, Birmingham City University, the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham Hippodrome and the West Midlands Combined Authority will create a business case to establish a world-leading facility for musical theatre in the UK.
They believe Birmingham, as one of the youngest and most diverse cities in Europe, “can build an international creative ecology around the art form” which will stimulate economic growth, provide new employment opportunities for young people from all backgrounds, and help cement the UK’s position as a leader in the international musical theatre market.
Arts Council England chief executive Darren Henley said, “the UK has a strong reputation for creating and producing musicals that delight audiences across the country and around the globe.
Birmingham’s far-sighted plans for a new National Centre for Musical Theatre will help drive the growth of this important art form nationally and internationally as well as offering the opportunity to nurture the next generation of creative talent in the West Midlands.”
Musical theatre is of the one of the most financially buoyant art forms in this country, with musicals reportedly making up 10% of performances across UK theatres but accounting for 21% of tickets sold and 25% of revenue.
Mayor of the West Midlands Richard Parker commented, “we need to unleash and nurture the enormous talent we have in the West Midlands by providing the training opportunities local people need to land jobs in our growing creative sector. Having a musical theatre centre located here will help support that ambition.”
Birmingham Hippodrome set up the UK’s first venue-based department for new musical theatre, committed to creating opportunities for musical theatre talent from the across the UK. The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Acting School is one of the UK’s highest ranked courses and would look to create a dedicated musical theatre course.
The Hippodrome’s artistic director and chief executive Jon Gilchrist added, “our audience loves musical theatre. Of the 600,000 tickets we sell every year, more than half are for musicals. This partnership will work to harness the incredible creative talent of the West Midlands to make a genuine destination for the art form. We hope that one day soon our stages will be filled with the work of artistic talent developed here in Birmingham.”
The aim is for the report to be completed in the first three months of 2025.