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The West End enjoyed fantastic press after its biggest shows sailed through the credit crunch unscathed in 2008. A record breaking year for Wicked and We Will Rock You, other enormous shows did fantastic business, including Billy Elliot, Hairspray, Oliver!, The Lion King and Mamma Mia!, still reeling from its summer movie success. The unexpected triumph through the recession-hit festive period overshadowed the grim autumn the West End had been through, when a number of smaller shows closed their doors early due to lack of business. Not only that, but it has also painted the West End as something of a safe haven for Broadway producers, whose shows failed to take the recession in their stride in New York.

Broadway’s musical sensation Spring Awakening closed its doors several months early in January this year, despite rave reviews and armfuls of Tony and Drama Desk awards. However, a London transfer was carefully staged in the diminutive Lyric Hammersmith, where it played a strictly limited season in March. Although this was clearly a cautious move, Spring Awakening predictably sold out rapidly and bowled over London’s critics. Its success has now warranted a transfer to the West End’s Novello Theatre and has other Broadway shows wanting a piece of London action.

Legally Blonde the Musical dramatically closed after only eighteen months in New York, one of the first casualties of what’s become known as the ‘Broadway bloodbath’. A London production had been on the cards several months earlier, with an ill fated and short lived marketing campaign advertising the show at the Piccadilly Theatre appearing in late 2007. Once it had been established that Grease was by no means ready to leave the Piccadilly, London’s Legally Blonde went back on the shelf. Although rumours still abounded, when the Broadway production posted its astonishing two week closing notice in October last year, it was widely assumed that London plans were on hold indefinitely. However, with the success of Spring Awakening getting the bandwagon moving, Legally Blonde has been the first to jump on, speedily confirmed to be playing the Savoy from December.

Grease producer David Ian recently announced that he is currently involved in the transfer of another Broadway fatality, the ELO musical Xanadu. The project is rumoured to feature Dancing on Ice champion Ray Quinn and is aiming to open early in 2010. Dolly Parton’s musical 9 To 5 is selling admirably Stateside, yet the lady herself is reported to already have her sights set on London. Other New York shows rumoured to be looking for West End homes include Gypsy, Shrek, Disney’s The Little Mermaid and current hit revival Hair.

At the moment, possibly spurred by the 2009 Olivier awards’ favouring high brow plays in non-West End venues, the West End’s theatres are increasingly filling with culture-vulture productions, including two repertory companies. One could also suggest that this shows an over-confidence, arrogance even, after London’s laughing in the face of economic tough times last year. However, the triumph of the big musicals makes it easy to forget the tragedy of plays such as Girl with a Pearl Earring and Riflemind, and it is these kinds of productions that are now pouring into the West End thick and fast. It is important to remember that while big, bold, Broadway style musicals may not hold out much Olivier hope, it is these escapist spectaculars that the British public are still keen to spend their hard earned and harder saved money on. Current West End plays Plague Over England and Woman in Mind have already posted early notices, while the star studded ‘surefire hits’ Complicit and Madame de Sade were mauled by critics. It is time for London, for the time being, to let Broadway take over.