Musical theatre! 2 million people per year are visiting the theatres in the Netherlands to see a show full of singing, dancing and acting. Musical theatre has suffered a bit from the financial crisis and issues with subsidies, but musical theatre is still very alive! From the current shows that are playing, the musical Soldaat van Oranje is definitely the most successful. It welcomed its 1.5 millionth visitor in November.
It’s still a good time for musical theatre. However, there has been a recent development in the ‘theatre bizz’: a merger. A merger between the two biggest musical producers in the Netherlands: Joop van den Ende Theaterproducties and Albert Verlinde Entertainment, creating Stage Entertainment NL. Joop van den Ende, co-founder of entertainment company Endemol, is moving towards retirement and he was in need of a good successor to leave his successful theatre company in good hands. Albert Verlinde has run his theatre company Albert Verlinde Entertainment (previously V&V Entertainment) for 16 years now.
There has always been a healthy competition between the two companies. Still, the news of the merger doesn’t come as a big surprise. While the general public always thought Erwin van Lambaart (for years the right-hand of Van den Ende) would be the logical successor for the creative company, things evolved a little differently. He left the company some years ago and it was unclear what would happen with the company when Joop eventually would retire. Until recently. Joop van den Ende and Albert Verlinde started to collaborate on multiple projects (e.g., the Dutch musical Sonneveld, produced by Verlinde, was shown in the Amsterdam Theatre De LaMar, owned by Van den Ende) and after these collaborations, a good successor was found.
That’s all very nice. Two successful companies merging into one big theatre empire (for the Dutch market, that is). But that’s exactly where my point of critique starts to grow… This merger has almost created a monopoly in the musical theatre business. The two companies both have an enormous amount of musical rights in their possession which creates a strong, almost unbreakable, position in the market. Yes, there is NEW Productions which is still very successful with its musical Soldaat van Oranje (sold out for 4.5 years now) and there are some smaller producers (including Erwin van Lambaart’s own production company). But are they capable of standing up against such a powerful force?
An article in Brabants Dagblad has called Erwin van Lambaart’s company a possible new competitor to give a challenging reply to the whole monopoly situation. His first musical production ‘Hartsvrienden’ (the Dutch version of Blood Brothers) has been well received.
It will be very interesting to see what impact the merger will have on the Dutch musical market. Not only in terms of competition but also in terms of shows. Where Joop van den Ende has had quite some success with popular names like Tarzan, The Lion King, Les Misérables and Mamma Mia!, Albert has had a genre of ‘happy dance’ musicals like Grease, Footloose, Hairspray, and Spamalot and small Dutch productions like Ramses and Sonneveld. FYI, Sonneveld, the reprise, is now the very first production of the newly merged company Stage Entertainment NL.
I predict that the two different paths of the two companies will both be continued. Both small Dutch productions and dance musicals AND big productions: Beauty and the Beast 2015-2016 has already been announced! Time will tell what the future holds. One thing is sure: the show will always go on.
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