‘The Room Where It Happens’ - Thousands of fans gather at MusicalCon debut:
Over 10,000 musical theatre fans gathered at the ExCel in East London on the 22nd and 23rd of October 2023 for the debut of MusicalCon, the first ever musicals-based convention ever held in the UK.
The convention had an extensive schedule of events, including preview performances of West End shows, workshops, talk show panels, a mini-theatre based marketplace for small businesses who sell stagey goods and much more, the weekend was fully packed with activities.
The convention was split into sections, each focusing on different aspects. The Main Stage held most of the action, with a non-stop programming including unique performances, previews of brand-new shows, cast reunions, Q&As, interviews, game shows and much more. It was the beating heart of the weekend and had the most action. Many attendees stayed there for the majority of the weekend as it’s schedule was extremely packed with highly exciting material which is fantastic but it did lead to very hard decisions over when to get food, when to explore the area, when to watch one of the panels or do a workshop, the event was filled to the brim which meant a lot of action was missed. However, it cannot be overlooked how stunning the list of performances was, especially for the debut of the convention. The creators were extremely smart in the way they planned this event. The cast reunions were completely “for the fans” running with the tagline of the event. They added something that you wouldn’t get at a similar event such as West End Live, which is a free event where musicals perform for a weekend in Trafalgar Square. The MusicalCon creators took this in their stride, and instead of copying that idea and placing a fee onto it, they added events the fans are demanding for, cast reunions from their favourite shows such as In the Heights and Rent, previews of new and upcoming shows such as But, I’m A Cheerleader, SuperYou! And Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella and gameshows. It was a very smart and correct decision.
The Backstage Theatre was home to the all-star discussion panels varying from discussing the life behind the curtain to bringing up important issues affecting the musical theatre community such as diversity and inclusion. Again, featuring a rather jam-packed schedule, there was much going on here and it was hard to fit everything in, especially with such interesting panels. But the main issue that can be improved next year is the seating and the headphones. Due to the vast amounts of sound coming from the main stage, the workshops, the masterclasses, an open panel could not be heard so they came up with the idea of headphones. The panellists would talk into microphones and then that would be played into the headphones. The issue was some headphones kept breaking or they weren’t loud enough and then there was a limited number of headphones and seats, which meant that many people had to miss these discussions. There were around 100-150 chairs surrounding the panel area and with a capacity of around 10,000 people, that just doesn’t cut it. Hopefully next year, they can learn from this mistake.
Stage Door is what you expect it to be, it’s a chance to meet your favourite star, snap a photo or get an autograph, but unlike the real stage door, this is at an additional price. This caused some uproar/upset among fans as these are stars that you can bump into in the streets of London or at the real stage door, so the prices seemed a bit extravagant. However, fans commonly forget that actors do not have to be at the real stage door, they are not paid for these sorts of things. You wouldn't expect a singer to start having a free meet and greet after their three-hour concert, would you? The same goes for these theatrical stars and the additional price is up to you whether you want to pay for it or not, but it is beneficial for those involved and should not have been one of the biggest complaints of the event.
Theatreland was home to the wonderful world of theatre, featuring many photo opportunities, whether that was with the Back to the Future car or the set and costumes from Disney classics such as Frozen and Lion King. This is also where the marketplace was, which was a lovely addition. It not only gave fans the opportunity to buy unique pieces of theatre merch, but it purposively looked for small stage businesses and highlighted them, giving them an opportunity to grow and many stalls were left completely empty by the end of the first day. There was also a collection of theatre schools and universities surrounding the area, which again was a lovely addition as many kids who were at the event may want to continue theatre and study it later on. This gave them the opportunity to find out more about the next steps and gave them an insight on what these schools are like. This was one of the best aspects of the convention. The one thing that could be improved next year is a larger space as people were commonly trapped in between two stalls and the walkways would be constantly blocked.
There were also workshops and masterclasses available to attend. These gave attendees the opportunity to learn from the best of the best and get to learn the dances and songs from their favourite musicals. Again, this was a great addition to a musical based convention, thinking about what the fans would want and giving it to them at a decent price. Both workshops and masterclasses were incredibly priced, most running at around £10 a session which is unheard of, especially when led by such renowned stars.
Overall, the event was highly successful with a few flaws that can be improved over time with more experience, and it is highly probable that it is here to stay.
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