The Musical in Spain

Abstract

The early twenty-first century Spanish stage has been characterised by an unprecedented boom in musicals. This is both the cause and consequence of the commercial success of Hoy no me puede levantar, a musical about the Movida based around the songs of Mecano. In the first half of this article, I examine to what extent Madrid’s Gran Vía can make a claim to being the Spanish Broadway and discuss the resilience of the Movida as a privileged site for nostalgia with commercial traction. The second half looks beyond the capital to examine some of the strategies by which practitioners and audiences from across Spain have negotiated the post-2008 financial meltdown. I will suggest that musicals are not only a key component in transmedia promotional strategies and performance intertextualities but have also provided a medium for the reflection and refraction of broader arguments about national identity and socio-cultural patterns.