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Good Nights Out

A History of Popular British Theatre 1940-2015

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Good Nights Out

By: Aleks Sierz
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London’s West End is a global success story, staging phenomenal hit shows that have delighted millions of spectators and generated billions of pounds in revenue. In Good Nights Out, Aleks Sierz provides a thematic survey of such popular theatre shows that were enormous commercial successes over the past 75 years. He argues that these outstanding hits have a lot to say about the collective cultural, social and political attitudes and aspirations of the country, and about how our national identity — and theatre’s role in creating it — has evolved over the decades.

The book spans a range of work from almost forgotten plays, such as R. F. Delderfield’s Worm’s Eye View and Hugh Hastings’s Seagulls Over Sorrento, to well-known mega-hits, such as The Mousetrap and The Phantom of the Opera. Such popular work has tended to be undervalued by some critics and commentators mainly because it has not been thought to be a suitable subject for inclusion in the canon of English Literature. By contrast, Sierz demonstrates that genres such as the British musical, light comedy, sex farce or murder mystery are worth appreciating not only for their intrinsic theatrical qualities, but also as examples of the dream life of the British people. The book challenges the idea that mega-hits are merely escapist entertainments and instead shows how they contribute to the creation of powerful myths about our national life. The analysis of such shows also points towards the possibility of creating an alternative history of postwar British theatre. Entertainment & Performing Arts
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Critic reviews

The book is doing important work in bringing these plays and productions back into view as significant contributions to an expanded notion of what a history of British theatre might look like at one end of the commercial subsidized spectrum … Works as an introductory text that goes some way to changing the aperture on British commercial theatre.
In a terrific new book, Good Nights Out, the critic Aleks Sierz flies the flag for a strand of work he feels has been consistently undervalued despite – or rather because of – its box office success.
This is that rare thing: an absolutely necessary theatre book. Aleks Sierz examines popular theatre seriously but not solemnly, sets it in its historical context and, above all, understands its social significance. An indispensable addition to the bookshelf.
A well-researched, worthwhile and enjoyable read.
[Sierz’s] discussion throughout the book is clear and lively … A hugely enjoyable read, one that never talks down to the reader, but which has depth and knowledge to provide an informative context for the relationship between mega-hits and audience tastes.
The great British public just wants to have fun, to enjoy a good night out,' declares Sierz (visiting professor, Rose Bruford College, London, UK) in his fascinating and important study of British popular theater between 1940 and 2015. Subverting the common perception of British theater as a locus for erudite, serious drama in favor of theater that 'people actually want to see,' Sierz focuses on 'mega-hits'—'superlatively successful' shows with more than 1,000 performances that captured the popular imagination and allowed Britons to dream about who they are, how they feel, and what they might become as a society. Sierz organizes his study thematically, examining shows about matters that have preoccupied the British—war, crime, sex, family, class, history, and fantasy—and looking at how they evolved on stage over 75 years. He cites significant crossover shows, such as War Horse and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which were both mega-hits and critically acclaimed works of art and profiles others heretofore absent from published histories--for example, Worm’s Eye View, Pyjama Tops, and Daisy Pulls It Off. His analysis of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, which opened in 1952 and is still running (26,000-plus performances), is revelatory. Excellent appendixes and notes. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.
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