Soho On Stage

We have to work our way up to it of course.

Each step forward, each stage bigger.

There's a sense of greatness in the air.

Arguably, the most famous, creative square mile anywhere in the world.

But theatre, the lifeblood of the area, appears suddenly under threat.

Places like the Astoria were pulled down, no-one

They just don't get it, they're, they're, they're a shower!

There's not going to be any reason for people to come here anymore.

This rush to gentrify it, to maximize profits would be

This is a hub for not only for actors, but for the whole creative

Amidst this battle to Save Soho, On Stage follows

On that first night, is there going to be anyone there to react to it?

It's suddenly, going , swhh, it's gone.

Soho's a village and people don't realize what

And it's a creative place, it really is a creative place.

It's bounded on all sides by theatres.

So we're here on the south-east corner where the Palace Theatre is.

So if you walk down here, smiling at you over here, is The Criterion.

Then you run up, all the way up Regent Street

And here will be a wonderful new theatre.

So theatres, theatres, theatres and theatres.

It has a great and unbelievable history, you know, for a village.

Soho may lay claim to be the most important theatrical neighborhood

But not just because of the big West End theatres that form its borders.

In the warren of streets leading out from their stage doors,

performance spaces of all types are found - music, burlesque, comedy,

As artistic director of The Soho Theatre, Steve Marmion's

currently masterminding a new Irish-UK co-production.

Soho Theatre isn't in the middle of London,

There's something about Soho that has that spirit to

it, it's incredibly international, it's incredibly non-exclusive

and welcoming and it's a little bit slutty too.

Soho Theatre's a theatre that exists to find new audiences,

Our audience is young and sexy and living in a place where they

are bothered most about the future, not about the past.

Thank you for coming down. We are three companies coming together.

Welcome. Death of a Comedian is

about a man trying to be a comic and trying to make a living doing

something he thinks he loves. I am an agent, maybe you have heard

of me. It should always say your name on stage.

In metaphorical terms, it's

about the compromises you have to make to get that idea into reality.

And then, at the end, is that idea still what you want?

I'm trying to think of something that explains myself to you.

I leave the past for others to deal with.

How that affects you is that there is no point

The historic central London district of Soho has always attracted

controversy and pioneered creativity.

In the 1860s, Dean Street was a slum home for

Frith Street was where Logie Baird invented Television in the 1920s

and the 2i's coffee bar on Old Compton became the birthplace

I spent a lot of hours, I think, at the 2i's Coffee Bar.

It was the home of the hand jive because there was

It is a unique place, I just hope they don't ruin it

People will say, "Oh were you really a Windmill Girl, wow."

Of course, at the time, we didn't know it was, but it was.

It was a theatre, it was not a club, therefore it was under strict

theatre licensing laws, so nothing should be seen, the Lord Chamberlain

If you're in the nude, if it moved, it was rude.

The only person in the nude who could move was

The big reveal at the end, when the principal dancer raised her

It was naughty, it was a naughty little theatre wasn't it?

In the 1970s, this office building plague was going across London.

It had applied for a third of the Soho territory

You know, if you go to Kettners now, that whole block was going to go.

Unfortunately, now of course, we've gone full-circle 40 years plus.

London simply wouldn't be London without Soho.

Soho's unique blend of raffishness with a hint of wickedness,

its artistic freedom of expression, its place as a centre for the gay,

All this gives London an extraordinary gift.

And the metropolis would be so much less of

a place without somewhere like Soho, with its raffish, bohemian charm.

The recently-formed Save Soho Campaign, backed by stars

like Stephen Fry and Benedict Cumberbatch, and with close links to

the Soho Theatre, claim the unique, artistic- nurturing character of the

whole area is under grave threat from property developers, central

government and the homogenenizing impact of high street globalization.

Their spokesman is local musician, Tim Arnold.

It's my village and I've been able to work

in this village and I can't really anymore as a performer, because

When you walk into Soho, finally, for the first time as a budding

performer that gives a young performer the encouragement and

belief in themselves to know they've arrived in a district that has

produced all the people that they would want to be, you know,

Now, I doubt very much what I've just described comes up

What I think the biggest threat to this area is, is if it ends up

appearing architecturally and spiritually like somewhere else

With such support and ongoing creative activity, just

Now you have this new race and my name for it is Corporate Man.

And I meet him and I talk to him and he doesn't know what you're

He just sees everything in square footage,

And then he'll go and do the same thing somewhere

What we're worried about is the smaller grass roots venues

and artists who perhaps are just finding their feet and how we ensure

That they're not moving off to Berlin or Paris or New York,

Because they're such a big part of why London is successful.

I don't think you should ever set a place in aspic and I think

So, I don't want to put any kind of, sort of blanket, heritage

My anxiety about the present government is that they just don't

get it, they're a shower, they don't understand that you need that

If it all becomes lots of spanking great big offices, we might have

gained another few thousand square feet of office space,

It tends to attract creative office space, so I think if you're just

saying it's a few thousand square feet of office space, you're not

reflecting the fact that the people who work in those offices may also

be people who take an active part in the life of Soho.

If London were to lose that kind of slightly naughty, slightly edgy,

slightly exorbitant patch, then I think it would die a little.

Meanwhile, as rehearsals progress at the Soho Theatre, Death of a

Comedian's central theme emerges as a metaphor for the Save Soho debate.

You need to make yourself better without losing sight of who you are.

That's what I'm waiting on you to do.

On stage, Steve the comedian's career journey

has begun to reflect that of the neighborhood surrounding the theatre

- as they both face what the future commercial price of past and present

There are questions, important questions.

I'm the man that gave you what you wanted because you told me

Now it looks like that might be happening you

I would suggest you're looking for morality, where none exists.

The recent, controversial closure of Madame Jo Jo's in Brewer Street

ignited the debate about Soho's creative future.

I think that was probably the straw that broke the camel's back.

I'm Ruby with Jones, I'm the Queen of Queerlesque.

I'm a performer, I've always been someone who knew

I even tried not doing it for a while and I just realised this

You know, you could say to people who didn't know anything

about burlesque or didn't know anything about drag, "Oh,

There's very few places around London where you can say that, where

The closure of JoJo's, I think, has affected young performers,

I think that was what was really special, actually, about Madame Jo

People could try things, people could play.

To bring something in now, into Soho, or to make a performance

debut in Soho, I can't even say where you would do that now.

It used to be that safe place for people of all kinds to go.

Madame JoJo's really was like a real mecca for people who were different.

Now, almost the majority of my friends, I would say, we don't

Being here now, I just, I really realise how much I miss it,

how special this place was and how sad I am that I didn't do more and

At the other end of the spectrum, some theatre owners are battling

Nimax Theatres boss and former actress Nica Burns

already runs a string of West End theatres - 3 of which border Soho.

It'll be the first new, major theatre for London in decades.

I will be already looking at the front to sign of the theatre. It is

the first time I have imagined it. Now, here is where the new Theatre

starts. Right here, all the way along here and down the back of the

church. There would be a little piazza just in front of the church,

so you can enjoy that beautiful circle and then there would be a

path around the edge where we can have tables out in the summer. This

is going to be a massive improvement.

This top of Tottenham Court Road and this end of Oxford Street was

It was always, sort of, neglected really and it's going to

be completely rejuvenated and I think it's going to be a fantastic

But to make her new theatre happen, Nica's having to work with major

People call us a developer, but we're not really a developer,

We own about five and a half million square feet in

Central London, something over ?4 billion but those are just numbers.

It's an alliance of two very different worlds.

Why did you put that in there? I would like some more space for my

theatre. We would love to. There is a lot going under the ground beneath

there. You know you don't want to meet

suits all the time, you want to meet interesting people,

so Nica is a lovely person, she's a challenge, but that's great,

I mean we need to be tested. Who wants to have a boring life just

building the same sort of things? You have come out across your

station and that is your building designed to suit you.

The brief was to create something really interesting.

Some offices, some retail and some public realm, a new square, and a

theatre, but obviously above a very complicated railway interchange.

You've got Crossrail, you've got the Northern Line,

This is what is the big issue. There is a big issue. Even before your

time, we have had to look at... No vibrations and no sound of the

trains. Silence. The only way to resolve it is to do a box within a

box. That is your theatre. It is a cartoon at the moment. The most

important interface is probably that one. What happens when these fans go

wrong? As property developers, how do

Derwent feel about the allegations go to Canary Wharf if you want to

meet suits, or go to other parts. But, I think if you want, you know,

you want to keep the vibrancy going and you want to

keep interesting people. So,

I don't want it to become corporate, but you do need regeneration,

you need some wealth being brought into it because, you know,

things cost money, so, you know, So, I think it's getting

the balance right. But I don't really see it becoming

too corporate and I hope it doesn't - you want to keep that rich history

and that rich tapestry. It is quite an opportunity for us,

this theatre. We don't build many and we have to get it right.

I just feel as if I have, I've just had the most privileged

experience to be able to build a new theatre and hopefully to set

it sail on a long and illustrious career, far beyond myself.

The type of things that go on at tech rehearsals can be anything

from troubleshooting the tiniest little problem through

to solving a big theatrical effect that we're looking to solve.

So, one of the more major things, there's a big pyrotechnic,

And now it's a process of going through and really just

You know, you've got Ben our lighting designer, then you've

got Tracey our DSM working with Wan who is doing the sound.

So, they're just trying to get all the different elements working

In what continues to develop as a fitting parallel

for what is going on outside the Soho Theatre's walls, the

comedian's agent, Doug, puts forward the case in support of change

What's the point in any of this if we don't allow someone we love

We all struggle with that, I understand.

We see something we like, so we want it to stay the same.

You either stay in the background and watch that happen, or you leave.

If Soho stayed the same, this theatre would have never been built.

This theatre was built 15 years ago and it, prior to that,

Well, in the 30s, the Jewish community moved out of Soho, so

there wasn't a need for a synagogue in the same way in this area and

And to argue that change is negative, I think,

It feels dangerous actually, that's what I think.

He's talking about the possibility of big changes.

Talk like that always feels, well, not dangerous but, you know scary.

You're not listening, not change is scary.

I am an adult, I have changed along the way.

Howard Raymond is the late Porn King of Soho, Paul Raymond's son.

My father was the biggest owner of theatres in London.

When he died, I mean, I think the headline in the Evening Standard

Well, it's a much better title than theatre impresario.

Today, Howard is one of the biggest property owners in the area and has

The only fear I have for Soho is the speed at which it's changing.

In its history, it's never moved at the speed it's moving now.

At the moment in Soho we are just finishing off a small conversion

And we've had 130 enquiries for that space.

I mean it's staggering the amount of enquiries we've had on that,

It's just quite staggering that so many people even now, you know,

want to come into the West End you know or, i.e.

We're not saying no development or anything like that

and it would be wrong for me as a developer to do that, I mean

And let's just look at each and every application.

Otherwise it's going to be glass turrets everywhere, you might

With the big players and emotive themes involved,

the debate continues daily right across the neighborhood.

Hobbit and Sherlock star, Martin Freeman, visits his long-term

Soho is somewhere I come to most

Most of my social life is spent here.

You know, my agent's around the corner.

This is a hub for, not only actors, but for the whole creative

I mean you see people from my world, Mark's world and what I like

about this is the way that those worlds elide.

I saw a really nice bottle green. It was a lighter and brighter green

than that. Sometimes, yeah,

it is a great tragedy when these wonderful buildings are

pulled down and whatever. And things are changing and a lot

of the soul is being taken out of the centre of town,

but the people are still here. A year ago, two years ago,

I sort of initially started to get a little bit upset about what

seemed to be happening in the area and then I thought, actually,

well nothing's going to change. You've got to be positive

and embrace it. And that's exactly what I've done,

particularly over And you know, all the gentrification

or whatever they're calling it now and people being very negative about

it, you have to - you know - move forward and I think there are a lot

of people that maybe haven't got much else to latch onto,

so then they use it It's a bit of a, what I call

a bit of a Bob Geldof gee-up. I've got its boundary lines

in feet and heads. Dust its alleys

so often with footfall. Old Compton Street's

east-west arterial routes. Piccadilly at south-western corner,

like frontiers of a concrete living Soho as I reinvent its milieu

and fascination. Music: Mike Payne - The Black Angel

of Camden Instrumental. Meanwhile, rehearsals for Death

of a Comedian are complete. At the Soho Theatre,

press preview night looms - and artistic director Steve is

getting ready for the occasion. Because I'm an artistic director

as well as the play's director, And to do that,

you need to be quite confident and you need to be on top of your game

when actually you're at your most vulnerable and you're most nervous

'cos everyone's about to come and Anything you can do to make yours

elf feel a bit more confident I guess - like the war paint,

I get me hair cut sometimes. I get very nervous

on press night to the point that I So, I will welcome all

the guests and my assistant will let And that isn't a poncey,

theatre tradition. If something goes wrong,

then people turn and look at you, It only takes ten people behaving

differently in that house and that's a big enough chunk of the

audience to affect the performance. It's just three hours till

the press arrive. I don't know what on earth made me

think that anyone should come Do you know, that's how I feel

right before a press night. It's a ridiculously arrogant thing

to do to invite all these people Back at the giant Nimax Theatres

Group, Chief Executive, Nica has JK Rowling will bring the world's

first-ever stage adaption of It will bring people to

the theatre who've never gone You know, you've got people from all

over the world - China excited - all the continents going, "I've got

to get to London to see this." And I'm hoping that as more

and more new people discover theatre by coming to the show, they'll

actually go into Soho and spend an afternoon or beforehand or they come

to matinee to the evening just to discover some of the wonderful

things that you'll find. As Soho braces itself

for Potter-Mania, Death of A Comedian at the Soho

Theatre has survived press night The final act sees

the formerly cutting-edge comic radically change his set and entire

persona to deliver global success. But he fears he's sold his soul

in the process. Could the same thing really

happen to theatre in Soho? Or is clinging onto the area's

renowned creative credibility You're going to get something you're

never going to change, it's going to My greatest hope is that, you know,

we can sort this out I mean it's a bit like saving

the tiger, it's a bit late Having less places like

Madame Jo Jo's doesn't help the security of people who are

doing things like I do. It makes it even harder,

because we're kind If it was saving me then I'd be

saying Save Soho, but I don't Nobody really still knows what

Save Soho was trying to save. And I can tell you what it is

in one word. A city is an organism

and I don't think you can say, well, we've got a plan to make this,

to ensure that this stays exactly as is, I don't think anyone would

want it to stay exactly as it is. I think they see the value

of developers being allowed to do whatever they want rather than

the value of the community. Everything that is quaint

and interesting and edgy is disappearing and that would leave us

a rather antiseptic London. A lot is talked now

about those parts of Soho, you know, being lost now and going

and that's true and that's a shame. But, the story's not over yet

- do you know what I mean? While it's curtain up again at the

Soho Theatre, can the unique area around it, the heartland of British

theatre really change forever? And if so, what will the future Soho

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