Last week I wrote a blog about the illegal filming of theatre shows and whether or not we both love and hate them. Yes it’s illegal and we all hate seeing anyone around us with the bright light of their phone shining in our eyes but we are also the same people who love to watch YouTube videos of secret recordings of our favourite shows or shows we have not had a chance to see in person.
I had lots of comments from people about this issue from both points of view. One person said that they wouldn’t watch bootleg recordings if more shows were professionally filmed and released on DVD.
Over Christmas, I noticed that there were several theatre productions shown on TV including Peter Pan Goes Wrong and Dawn French: Thirty Million Minutes, both of which I had not had a chance to see personally in the West End. It was great to be able to watch them in the comfort of my own home and for free. So should this be done more often with theatre productions?
The National Theatre Live are brilliant at broadcasting live performances of theatre shows in cinemas (with No Man’s Land and Saint Joan being just two of the ones coming out soon) but it would be great if these were also released to be able to watch online incase people can’t make it to the cinema.
With shows like Billy Elliot, Gypsy and Miss Saigon all being released to DVD over the last couple of years, hopefully this is a growing trend and we will start to see more and more productions filmed and released on different medias. There is so much technology availably to us these days that it seems a shame not to embrace it within theatre. I know people might argue that if you watch a theatre production online or on TV then it will stop you from enjoying the experience in real life at the theatre but I for one do not think that would be the case. If anything, I think it would encourage people to go to the theatre in person more often.
Let me know your thoughts on social media Facebook Twitter or you can email me wilma@westendwilma.com. Most excitingly of all you can write me an old fashioned letter now as well to my new PO Box address (PO Box 73609, London, SE13 9EE).
