Mary Poppins musical to land in Edinburgh next year
◆ Cameron Mackintosh on Edinburgh's next blockbuster musical, plans or Hamilton and the cost of theatre tickets
Cameron Mackintosh has revealed plans to bring another blockbuster musical to Edinburgh – as he suggested that Hamilton could make an extended comeback in the capital and also visit Glasgow.
The musical impresario has confirmed that Mary Poppins will have an extended run at the Festival Theatre less than a year after it plays host to Linmanuel Miranda’s Broadway and West End sensation.
Mackintosh said that Hamilton could have been extended for several more weeks in Edinburgh based on the huge demand for tickets for its nineweek run, which was almost completely sold out ahead of its opening last week. He suggested that he would make even more use of the venue in future if it could be used for extended runs of shows once the King’s Theatre, which is also run by Capital Theatres, reopens after refurbishment next year.
Australian stage stars Stefanie Jones and Jack Chambers will play the leading roles in the new touring production of Mary Poppins.
Next year’s Edinburgh run, from January 22 to February 15, will be the first time the show has visited the city for nine years.
The Festival Theatre is the only confirmed Scottish venue on an extensive UK and Ireland tour which will see Jones and Chambers revive their roles as Mary and Bert from Mackintosh’s Australian touring production. Mackintosh said: “It’s the perfect theatre to bring Mary Poppins back to. It’s the most spectacular version I’ve ever done, which was at the Prince Edward Theatre in the West End until last January.
“It’s got even more magical, it has the most fantastic choreography and I’ve no doubt that the audience will have their socks knocked off.
“I’m thrilled to be bringing it back with two glorious stars I discovered in Australia, where they’ve been an enormous success in the show. I would normallygo out there for auditions for my shows but I couldn’t afford the time to do that due to the really stringent Covid restrictions that were in place at the time. I originally saw Stefanie and Jack on video but asked them to fly to London. They came over and I spent a couple of days with them. I thought they were fantastic.”
Hamilton has opened at the Festival Theatre 30 years after an extensive overhaul of the former Empire Theatre, which originally opened in 1928 and ran until 1962 and then operated as a bingo hall for several decades. It has been increasingly used by Mackintosh for his shows over the past decade.
The impresario said: “It’s a great theatre – thank God the council took it over. It really suits so many of my productions. It has the right scale and capacity, with just under 2,000 seats and yet it is intimate for a big theatre.
“One of the reason siam using it more now I can get the Festival Theatre for much longer periods than we used to do. It was only available for shorter periods so it didn’t make sense to use it for very big shows.
“We wanted it for eight weeks for Hamilton and have sold out before even opened. The response was incredible. We were all taken aback that it was right across the entire season.
“We could have easily have run for 12 weeks if we had had
It’s the perfect theatre to bring Mary Poppins back to. It’s the most spectacular version I’ve ever done
the time, but I’m thrilled the Festival Theatre managed to find eight weeks for us.
“Once the King’s comes back into play, hopefully when there is an exceptional show like Hamilton they’ll be able to give us a longer run.
“This kind of show proves that there is an audience that will come here from all over Scotland. We’d stay on if we could. We’d like to bring it back.
“Glasgow doesn’t have a theatre of the same scale as either the festival theatre or the play house so it makes much more sense to do shows in Edinburgh. But we had incredible success with Les Misérables at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow and hopefully we will be able to do that with hamilton in due course.”
Mackintosh was in Edinburgh for the official Scottish premiere of Hamilton, which he brought to the West End in 2017, just two years after its launch off-broadway. Speaking after the gala performance at the Festival Theatre, where Hamilton runs until the end of April, he said: “I knew the show was in great shape, but I felt the cast were just sensational. I’m very proud of this great company.”
Hamilton has opened in Edinburgh amid growing debate about the price of theatre tickets, particularly in London. Tickets for the Festival Theatre run cost between £30 and £99.50.
Mackintosh said: “If Hamilton wasn’t affordable it wouldn’t have sold out in advance. I think the ticket prices here are pretty reasonable, the show is just as good as it is in London and people don’t have to pay extortionate hotel prices to see it here.
“Some shows have been charging a great deal of money in London but I wouldn’t allow it to happen in my theatres. One of the reasons our shows have good huge advances and are doing really well is because they are affordable. They’re also huge shows.
“The interesting thing is that most of the shows which are charging a lot of money for short runs with big stars are plays or small productions.
“Our musicals are playing to an average capacity of 93 per cent. We are doing better now than we were before the pandemic.
“These are difficult times and money is tight. But nevertheless people will still want to go out if they feel they’re going to get value for money. A great musical will be remembered longer than most great meals in a restaurant.”