In London,” says David Babani, “fringe theatre is a dirty word.” And not
without justification. It's meant to connote dissidence, dash and daring
experiment. It's meant to breed the talents of tomorrow. But somehow,
“fringe” has come to mean vanity projects, tatty revivals of tired classics,
and sitting almost alone in rooms above pubs, while everyone downstairs has
a lot more fun. So, when a fringe success story comes along, we should take
notice.
That's where Babani comes in. This rumpled impresario, aged only 30, is
artistic director of the Menier Chocolate Factory in southeast London, which
celebrates its fourth birthday this week. “And when we do so,” he says, “we
will have shows running simultaneously on the West End, on Broadway, and one
at the Chocolate Factory that's sold out.”
Those shows are, respectively, Patrick Marber's Dealer's Choice, Sondheim's
Sunday in the Park with George and the revived musical La Cage aux Folles -
which also looks likely to have a life beyond the Menier. “I would not have
predicted this level of success ever being possible,” Babani says, “let
alone within four years.”
So is this man the saviour of fringe theatre? Not necessarily: after all, “I
prefer to be categorised as off-West End,” Babani says. But he's happy to
divulge the lessons learnt in four years running the Menier. So, budding
artistic directors, get out your pen and paper now.
FIND A GOOD BUILDING
“The real star here is the building,” Babani says. At the turn of the 20th
century, the Menier did what it says on the tin: make chocolate. When Babani
and his former business partner, Danielle Tarento, stumbled upon it in 2003,
it was operating as an art gallery with a seldom-used performance space.
“And I fell in love with it,” Babani says. The Menier has tapped into the
vogue for theatre in former industrial spaces. “It has an element of
history, and mystery,” its director says. “There's an atmosphere that does
so much of the work for us.”
It's also flexible and accommodating. In a programming coup, the Menier's
first season featured the new writing heavyweights Paines Plough, who were
seduced, Babani says, because “the rule here is that there are no rules.
Unlike other theatres, where it's all stuffy, rigid and unionised, if we
need to work 24/7 to achieve something, or need to rip seats out and bring
the audience in through a loading dock, we can do it. And we do so,
regularly.”
IT'S A TOTAL EXPERIENCE
The restaurant is key to the Menier's success. It helps to fund the theatre
and offers meals themed according to what's on stage. But that's just the
half of it. “Everybody does everything here, from waiters to box-office
staff to stage management to management.” Babani wants the theatre to feel
like a family. “Once the show's over, the actors come out and mingle with
the public. Everybody's on the same level in this building.”
GET TALENT
“But it's not quite egalitarian,” says Babani - by which he means, he values
talent highly. “I'm proud of the breadth of talent we've had here - and that
includes those who are proven in the industry and those who are not.” Among
the former are the star of La Cage aux Folles, Douglas Hodge, and its
director, the playwright Terry Johnson. The latter include Sam Buntrock (who
directed Sunday in the Park with George) and Matthew White, whose Little
Shop of Horrors has been nominated for three Olivier Awards. Next up, as
Babani reports excitedly, is the musical theatre actress Maria Friedman, who
brings her new cabaret show, plus an 11-piece band, to the Menier next
month.
RAISE YOUR OWN MONEY
But if you're running a fringe theatre, how on earth can you afford Douglas
Hodge and Maria Friedman? Easily, says Babani. “We started this building
with just ten grand. And we have been parlaying that money ever since, first
into small productions and one-man shows, then into mega-musicals that go on
to the West End, and so on.”
And it's all happened without any Arts Council funding - on which Babani has
positively Thatcherite opinions. “I have seen friends and colleagues being
crippled by red tape in order to fulfil their funding criteria.” He prefers
the American way, “where there's no direct funding, but the Government
issues tax breaks to people who contribute to the arts. That leads to a
survival of the fittest. If you're doing good work or getting column inches,
or you are innovative in how you fundraise, then you survive.” That's
“slightly fairer,” he argues, “than being beholden to 22 old codgers in
charge of giving out every penny, and who judge you by criteria that you
barely understand.”
TRUST YOUR OWN TASTE
But you'll never raise money unless the work is good - and to ensure that,
Babani says, you have to trust your own taste. “I know I'll have to sit
through every show here ten times. So it has to be good enough for me to
want to do that. Theatre is normally so insular and difficult,” he says. “I
don't mind learning, I don't mind engaging in an argument. But if I'm not
being entertained, then somebody's not doing their job properly.”
DEVELOP YOUR AUDIENCE
Most fringe theatres are receiving, not producing, houses, and are at the
mercy of whoever can afford to hire their space. By producing its own work,
the Menier has ensured “a basic consistency in terms of the standard of what
you're delivering to an audience.” If you can guarantee that essential
quality, says Babani, you woo an audience that doesn't tend to come to
fringe theatre: that's “the North London middle-class audience who see shows
at the National and on the West End, and who are interested in seeing things
elsewhere, but not in slumming it.”
Babani discusses his whole first year of shows in terms of the audience they
attracted, and how each show “added another niche audience without upsetting
those we'd already attracted. So you get people who would go and see a quite
nasty Philip Ridley play [ie, Mercury Fur in 2005] coming to a musical like
[Jonathan Larsen's] Tick Tick Boom. And people who would go and see a
Sondheim musical coming to see a British rugby farce. That's how you build
an audience.”
HAVE AN IDENTITY - BUT DON'T BE BOUND BY IT
The Menier, which seats 200 people, more closely resembles an off-Broadway
venue than any other in London. “Off-Broadway used to be a thriving
community in New York, where millions were spent developing plays and
musicals for 200-seat theatres. So we have 50 years worth of material to
draw on” - including the first-season hit, Fully Committed, and the 2006
Jason Robert Brown musical The Last Five Years. So American plays and
musicals “became the spine of the programming at the Chocolate Factory”. But
they don't dominate - because “there is no form of entertainment that I
won't consider putting in the building, as long as I can sell tickets for
it,” Babani says.
WIDEN YOUR HORIZONS
“For me,” says Babani, “the barometer of success is work leaving the
building.” The Menier has a first-refusal deal with a commercial producer in
New York, Bob Boyett. “That money means we can do very ambitious shows that
can't make money in this building alone,” Babani says - La Cage aux Folles
being the most recent example. Boyett and the Menier hope to replicate the
success of Sunday in the Park with George, whose New York opening last week
will benefit the theatre in “many but unquantifiable ways”, Babani says. But
“we also want our shows to go to Singapore and Hong Kong and Australia.”
BE LUCKY
Of course, Babani knows that, even if other fringe theatres followed these
rules to the letter, their shows could still open to three punters and a
mangy dog. “Luck counts for a lot,” he says. “My particular experience
has counted for a lot. And circumstances count for everything. We happen to
be in this building, at this time, with these ideas. And that seems to have
sparked the public and the media's interest.” Rules can't harness that kind
of magic. Which is why Babani's last, fabulously theatrical advice to
aspiring fringe impresarios is: “Don't do it! If there's something else
you're interested in, do that instead. Only if there's no other alternative,
if this is the only thing you're capable of doing with yourself, then come
into this business and give it your all.”
La Cage aux Folles, Menier Chocolate Factory, London SE1 (www.menierchocolatefactory.com
020-7907 7060), until Mar 8, returns only; Dealer's Choice, Trafalgar
Studios, London SW1 (0870 0606632), until Mar 29; Sunday in the Park with
George, Studio 54, New York (001 212-719 1300)
Click
here to find tickets for The Chocolate Factory with Tickex
