COFFEE BREAK

Kevin Wilson, 60, is a widely respected, award-winning theatre publicist. One of his really big successes is Six, now back with its own hip-hop, Tudor style of panache at Vaudeville Theatre after a run at the Lyric. It’s touring too. Susan Elkin chatted to Kevin about his life and work. How did you get into theatre PR work?

Via journalism. I grew up in Carlisle and when I was 16 I did two days’ work experience at the News and Star which was the local evening paper. Then when I was back at school (where I’d published the school newspaper) doing my A levels they called to say there was a job – did I want it? When I went to talk to my head teacher, she told me that if I took the job I’d never work for the BBC. I often remember that because I often work with the BBC these days.

So you were a cub reporter?

Yes it was classic, traditional cub reporter, learning-on-the-job stuff: local events, court reporting, industrial tribunals and the like. I loved the excitement of covering a murder trial at the crown court and having to phone my copy in immediately. To this day I enjoy the buzz of that sort of urgency. Then I became the paper’s film critic as well, before doing a block release journalism training course in Sheffield and getting a sub-editor post on the Newcastle Chronicle. In many ways those were the golden years of journalism.

How did the career change come about?

I stayed with my uncle in London for a week. He took me to a different show every night including Annie with Sheila Hancock and Evita with Elaine Paige and I saw David Essex. I’ve worked with them all since! I fell in love with London, applied for a job at TV Times and got it. Later I helped to found Sky Arts magazine and did some freelance work which included Hollywood. Then Jonathan Arun, my ex-partner, had a show at Gate Theatre and asked me if I could create some publicity. So

I did and all the nationals came so I thought, naively, “This is easy”. It was a hybrid career for a bit but then I had to decide whether to jump. I launched Kevin Wilson PR in 1997 originally with an assistant and an office in Drury Lane. Today I’m a one-man company celebrating 25 years in the business.

And you seem to be tremendously busy?

Yes, I work with shows, venues and individuals all over the country and Six has opened on Broadway. In a normal year I’m publicising twelve to twenty shows at any one time, all at different stages of development, but of course it all disappeared overnight in March 2020. It’s much better now. I reckon to do about 70 show openings a year but last week there were seven! So I am optimistic about the future – I think we’ve turned a corner. I never advertise, by the way. The clients come to me. For instance, I’ve recently taken on the PR for Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester and The Mill at Sonning as well Music Theatre International, the licensing organisation, who wanted someone in London.

Has the work changed in 25 years?

Definitely. Things shift all the time and you have to adapt fast. I have worked in every West End theatre and I’m proud to have been involved with Thriller Live’s twelve year run although that will never happen again. I was one of the first theatre PRs to invite bloggers in to see shows. Newspapers are reducing arts space and cutting costs all the time so you have to accommodate new ways of working. And it can be difficult sometimes to get producers to understand this because they want 5* reviews from the dwindling number of top critics on print newspapers. Some bloggers are very good and some I quietly drop.

What about your spare time – if you have any?

I live with my two Russian Blue cats, Mink and Mabel in Clapham but my partner who works in a completely different field, is in Leeds so there’s a lot of commuting in both directions especially at weekends. The cats have a bespoke carrying basket and we go first class. I also spend a lot of money on theatre tickets seeing every show I can even when I’m not professionally involved. And I’m a keen cook.

Do you have any tips for teachers, youth theatre leaders, schools and colleges wanting to promote their shows?

Use social media – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram – and push everything out. Create a little world for your show. This is a free and very valuable resource. Have some really good pre-production photographs. These days you can probably do these yourself even with just a good phone. Find a look for your show and don’t look amateurish. There will probably be a student with high level tech skills. Use her or him. Posters still work (but fliers don’t), avoid the generic ones sent by the licence company, though. Local radio is great – especially daytime shows.