Dumb question about theatre productions

somefeen

So say someone in Ireland see's a show abroad, like some weird obscure thing. How do they get that show put on in Ireland?
How does all that work, do they pay the show a set fee and then make money from ticket sales? Does the theatre do it?

How does some show like phanton of the opera or Cats get put on in Ireland?

Derry_S

You would get on to the publishing house of the play and request performance rights/licensing for a fee, then ticket sales are yours - providing you've paid the theatre, promotion costs, technical team, costumes, sets and props, actors, insurance...!

brightspark

For musicals generally (and some plays especially if professional shows) the performance licence fee usually consists of a set fee based on the seating capacity of the venue PLUS a percentage of ticket sales.

Also additional performance rights may have to be paid for any music used.

Derry_S

The same parameters are there for most published plays. You may get a break in licensing if you're performing it for charity benefit, but not always 100%. Even for an unpublished original play where rights don't apply, you are still required to pay a small % of your ticket sales to IMRO if you use any published music - 4% last I checked.

CelticRambler

somefeen wrote: »

So say someone in Ireland see's a show abroad, like some weird obscure thing. How do they get that show put on in Ireland?
How does all that work, do they pay the show a set fee and then make money from ticket sales? Does the theatre do it?

How does some show like phanton of the opera or Cats get put on in Ireland?

You've got two different ends of the spectrum there - the "weird obscure thing" and the West End smash hit.

For the latter, the process is as described in the post above. Ireland isn't considered to be some out-of-the-way cultural backwater as some might have you believe, so you're limited in what special favours you can negotiate as far as royalty/licensing rates are concerned.

However, if it's something weird and obscure, chances are it's being perfomed by the group that created it and they'd be delighted to have any extra international exposure they can get, so say you were running a small town theatre festival, they might agree to a few performances in exchange for travel and accommodation expenses. Plenty of room for negotiation there.

brightspark

CelticRambler wrote: »

For the latter, the process is as described in the post above. Ireland isn't considered to be some out-of-the-way cultural backwater as some might have you believe, so you're limited in what special favours you can negotiate as far as royalty/licensing rates are concerned.

Often if a show is on in the UK the rights are unavailable to anyone else, in the UK AND in Ireland

CelticRambler

It depends on how big a production you intend to stage. You can get a restricted license for many of the Really Useful catalogue of shows, for example, if your ambitions aren't too great.