They may not be popular with everybody, but musicals are loved by many around the globe. The music, sets, stories, choreography, and costumes bring so much life to a stage. In between people suddenly breaking out into song, there’s usually dialogue in between to help tell a story. I say usually because there isn’t always dialogue, an example of a musical without any dialogue would be “Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet of 1812.”
Prior to moving to California, I thought Broadway musicals happened rarely since I wasn’t as into the musical scene (even though I really enjoyed them) and the only place I knew that showed them was Gammage at Arizona State University. The friend group I made here are much more knowledgeable about musicals and go to shows often. One friend even built out a website to document which shows we have attended and which ones are coming up. Los Angeles has so much to offer for musicals (and other shows, concerts, events, etc). Besides the productions at theaters such as Pantages in DTLA or Segerstrom in Orange County, smaller theater troupes put on shows at other venues.
When researching musicals that are popular across the globe, I came across one source that listed each country and the musical most searched in that country. Can you guess which musical is the most searched in Sweden? When I asked my friends, they guessed “Mamma Mia!” However, it turns out that the most searched musical there is “Cats.” What about Japan? The most searched musical there is “The Prince of Tennis” which is based on the anime of the same name. On the same list, “High School Musical” shows up multiple times and even “Shrek: The Musical” which I didn’t even know existed.
New York City is visited by many tourists, including those who attend Broadway shows. Over half of the people that see the shows are actually tourists. Most of these tourists are from the U.S. but there are also some international tourists. One post titled “Who’s Going To The Theatre: Stats and Facts from Broadway” broke down the percentage of international tourists, “Non-UK Europeans were the largest international group (4.2% of admissions), followed by visitors from Central and South America (3.6%), Canada (3.1%); Asia, India and the Middle East (also 3.1%); the UK (2.9%); Australia and New Zealand (1.7%) and Africa (0.3%)” (Theater Seat Store, 2022). The same report, which shared statistics for 2018-2019, stated that the average attendee was about 42 years old, Caucasian, female, and had a college education. The theater scene seems to be largely available to people with certain incomes.
Some countries don’t have much of a theater scene. A post titled, “Musical Theatre in West Asia,” four women in musical theatre were interviewed and each from a different country: Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Armenia. When asked, “what does musical theatre in your country look like?” it seemed like there wasn’t much of a community in their respective countries (Demirkurt,2023). Apparently in Turkey, musicals are more for children or the elite. Yet, like the four women interviewed, people are fortunate enough to be exposed to musicals and fall in love with the stage.
It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but musicals are an appreciated art that is enjoyed around the world.
Sources:
https://playbill.com/article/the-most-popular-musical-in-almost-every-country-around-the-world
https://www.broadwayleague.com/research/statistics-broadway-nyc/