Sorry Jake Gyllenhaal, but the British musical is alive and kicking

With shows such as Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Six and The Boy in the Dress, the musical is in rude health in this country – whether Broadway knows it or not

Has the British musical lost its mojo? Jake Gyllenhaal, who will be in London next year to co-star in Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park With George, thinks that it has. He’s been telling a reporter for the Times that, since the heyday of the 1980s and 90s, British musicals are no longer bombarding Broadway, which, he argues, is now setting the pace. Mr Gyllenhaal is a damn fine actor but I’m not sure he can be relied on as a cultural commentator.

For a start his remarks comes at a time when the British musical is enjoying something of a resurgence. Forget, for a moment, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s School of Rock, which has been filling the New London Theatre for the past two years or Matilda, admittedly by Tim Minchin who is part-Australian, which has been at the Cambridge theatre even longer. Has Mr Gyllenhaal heard of a hit called Six, by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, which is a tune-and-toe show about Tudor queens? He also ignores Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, composed by Dan Gillespie Sells with lyrics by Tom MacRae, which has had a long life since its Sheffield opening. News has presumably not yet reached Mr Gyllenhaal about the RSC’s The Boy in the Dress, with music and lyrics by Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers, which strikes a blow for individual self-expression and pupil power.

Not only is the British musical enjoying a mini-boom, what strikes me is that, when it comes to directors, choreographers and performers, we no longer need to bow the knee to Broadway. I’d remind Mr Gyllenhaal that it was a British director, Marianne Elliott, who had the wit to re-gender Sondheim’s Company by making the protagonist a woman, thereby giving the story an extra emotional depth. Stephen Mear, whose triumphs include Gypsy, Kiss Me Kate and who co-choreographed Mary Poppins with Matthew Bourne, seems to me a match for anyone on Broadway. If Mr Gyllenhaal has time, I’d also suggest he drops in on the Menier Chocolate Factory revival of The Boy Friend where Bill Deamer has choreographed the best Charleston you’ll ever see, as well as exhilarating tangos and two-steps.

We’re also not lacking for musical performers. Imelda Staunton’s performance as Mama Rose in Gypsy was a revelation in reminding us that the character was both a manipulative mum and a gutsy, wannabe star. As Mary Poppins, Zizi Strallen invests the flying nanny with a balletic grace and a strange, unearthly quality. And this year, two young performers, only just out of drama school, have taken the town by storm. One was Jac Yarrow in the title role of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, who made the London Palladium stage look like his natural habitat. The other is Sam Tutty, who plays the shy, socially awkward hero in Dear Evan Hansen with astonishing technical assurance.

But behind Mr Gyllenhaal’s remarks lie a bigger issue. The British musical is in a much healthier state than he assumes. But I don’t see it as the prime function of the British theatre to supply Broadway with a chain of gold-plated, ready-made hits. I welcome the fact that the National Theatre, under Rufus Norris, is focusing on plays that reflect the state of the nation rather than seeking to explore the American musical back catalogue or search for potential commercial transfers. Musicals have an important place in the theatrical ecology. But plays are what really capture the temper of the times and it is when they start to dry up that I shall really worry.