BROADWAY FOR SPANISH SPEAKERS

Madrid's booming theater industry stands poised to grow beyond borders

The Gran Vía in Madrid. Photo: Florian Wehde on Unsplash

In central Madrid, la Gran Vía is a lot like Broadway. Take a stroll down the wide, busy street and you’ll pass El Rey León, the Spanish-language outpost of The Lion King that’s been running in the city for a locally unprecedented 13 years. A block up there’s Aladdín, and close by in the other direction there’s Mamma Mia! Right across the street is the theater where Pretty Woman just wrapped up its run, and which later this year will be home to the ambitious, homegrown musical Los Pilares de la Tierra (The Pillars of the Earth).

¡Hola! and welcome to Jaques, your guide to the global theater industry. Here at last is the SPOTLIGHT STORY that had been scheduled to arrive last Tuesday, but I delayed it for a bit to give subscribers time to catch up on all the press generated by the Tony Awards nominations. If you’re new to Jaques, check out this handy explainer, and if you’re looking for the most recent ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS, my roundup of international theater headlines, that’s over here.

As recently as a decade ago, Madrid’s market for commercially produced, Broadway-scale musical theater wasn’t on anybody’s radar. Now it’s mentioned in the same breath as Hamburg and Tokyo, and these days the territory is booming—in ways both promising and challenging.

In this SPOTLIGHT STORY, I’ll highlight:

• why Madrid’s theater industry stands poised to boom beyond its borders,

• the challenges brought about by the local business’ speedy expansion,

• the market’s latest facts and figures,

• five big producers to know, and

• the homegrown original productions to keep an eye on.

¡Vamos!

MADRID’S MUSICALS ARE HAVING A MOMENT

Here’s one way you can tell the Spanish theater industry is more active and higher profile than ever: It just got its own version of the Tony Awards.