In my early junior college days, I was part of musical theater productions in the pit orchestras. The productions were not done in a theater but at various sites related to the story. For example, Oklahoma! was done on a farm, and 1776 was done in one of the State of Michigan government chambers. It was remarkably fun to do because the real-life setting made each story more memorable.
That said, this post is about scaling on-site productions up to an unimaginable level. Today, I read an article in the September (2025) issue of Tatler about a new musical titled 'Anne Boleyn: The Musical'. The origin of this musical was the brainchild of Princess Eliane de Merode and her brother, Prince Simon, of Belgium. In the early 2000s, they came up with an idea of creating a theater company in Belgium and would call it Historalia. The company, now the second largest in that country, stages immersive muscials based on historical figures at stately homes.
Princess Eliane married the Honorable Charles Astor at Hever Castle (in Kent, England) in 2017--becoming Lady Astor of Hever. Hever Castle was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. It took eight years, but Lady Astor and her brother succeeded in producing Anne Boleyn: The Musical on the grounds of Hever Castle. It is the story of Anne from the moment she left Hever for the Flanders court and then to the Tower of London where she would meet her end. The show was in August, and it featured 28 show tunes written by Rebecca Night, an actress and writer, who also co-wrote the lyrics. The site accommodated an audience of 1,800 all of whom were apparently issued and wore special headsets to listen to the show so no one lost out on the dialogue or music.
How I would have loved to go to this show, even to 'cross the pond' to do so!
Anyway, here is a YouTube video about the production in which you can see what the site and show looked like.
Comments
Post a Comment