Congratulations to the Artistic Director and Proprietor on the opening of The Other Palace – and what a brilliant choice for the inaugural production. The Wild Party (Michael John LaChiusa and George C.Wolfe) is a dark claustrophobic piece that demonstrates that musical theatre is a wonderfully complex form. It challenges audiences, proving that musical theatre can be political AND entertaining, confrontational AND moving, darkly tragic AND beautiful, and that the formal structures of musicals contribute to that diversity. What more exciting provocation could we hope for in the renamed venue, which, it is anticipated, will become the hub for trying out and refining new work in London.

The interactions between London and Broadway have been stimulating and productive for the whole of musical theatre’s history. This next step in bringing new and exciting work to London in small scale productions should challenge and provoke composers and writers to ever greater excellence, while educating audiences about the diversity of musical theatre. Of course, we will look forward to the inclusion of many more new British musicals in the months and years to come, but that doesn’t detract from the excitement I feel at the development of a dedicated home for new musicals. Southwark Playhouse, the Union, Menier Chocolate Factory, Charing Cross Theatre and others have been offering us exciting productions for some time now – and young British writers, composers and directors are starting to find routes to performance. This represents another step in that process, another link in the chain, another cog in the wheel and all the other metaphors you can think of. Writers need to be enabled and supported as they craft new work; beginning from workshops of snippets of material through rehearsed readings and stagings of excerpts through to full productions in a host of different sized and shaped venues, creative teams are finding opportunities. And seeing excellent and provocative productions, whether written by Americans or British teams, is part of the process of stimulating growth.

Well done to all involved with The Wild Party and to the team at The Other Palace for generating real excitement about the potential for experimenting in musical theatre.