Lessons Learned - Oneida in London (May 2025)

Beth Blatt
Jun 24, 2025
9 min read

Updated: Jun 25, 2025

Max Gallagher, Jon Bonner, Celine Rosenthal, Lizzie Hagstedt, Oliver Aston, Amy Bastani, and me.

I've "produced" readings in New York City before and was prepared for it to be a whole different ball game in London. But man - it was sooooo different!

Oh no! Is it an asteroid? No! It's a showcase in London.

But first...

PREVIOUSLY ON "PRESENTING ONEIDA"

We decided in late April to present a concert showcase version of our full-length musical Oneida in London in late May (ultimately May 29 at Seven Dials Playhouse).

I got my wish: a theatre in central London that was the right size at the right price.

That gave us almost two months to Get It Up. Plenty, I thought. No stress. Especially since it would be -

mostly songs (12 of them). A zippy 45 minutes.

Not a lot of "book" to worry about. Just little bits of scenes plus new narration I crafted to get the basic story across.

A small cast. We had 6 actor-muso's (well, five plus me) vs 13 in NYC at the reading we did 18 months ago.

AND HOW DID IT GO?

Really well! Phew!

Some comments heard afterwards:

"I want to see the whole show!"

"A breath of fresh air.

Humor, wit, charm, emotion.

I want to see it unfold."

"I know a theatre will snap it up."

NOW WHAT?

We're waiting for the video of the presentation to share with theatres and see who's ready to help.

In the meantime -

I learned SO much - and figure that learning might be useful for you.

Because more and more Americans are developing musicals in the UK.

WHAT?

WHY??

Money. It's cheaper to produce over there.
Audience. People still go to the theatre in the UK. It's a tradition. They are the Land of Shakespeare. Also, tickets are cheaper.

"SO WHAT DID YOU LEARN ?

Here's the TOPLINE:

1. Find out when the holidays/school breaks are and avoid them.

The casting process is WAY different over there.
The talent has gotten really good and the actor-musician thing (“actor-muso”) is huge.
Have a good – and short – teaser video. It opened a lot doors. Here's ours.
Our 1-minute teaser video. I did it myself - but done is better than perfect.
Money - it's complicated. How much to pay, how to get it from dollars to pounds, how to budget (some things are a lot more expensive).
There are unexpected and unusual speed bumps. Insurance (who knew??). Deliveries (it's a big town). Video approvals.
People are lovely there. It's not just the accent. Even important industry people.
No matter what - this is a great chance to make community (for next time, as my friend would say).
Attitude management. Chill when you can. Stop expecting the worst.

10. That said - be ready for the worst (finish that task you're working on now)

We really are two countries separated by the same language. What is a "crotchet"? (no relation to what it sounds like).

Here's the GORY DETAIL

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE TIMING

Avoid school vacations. Theatre folk can be parents, too. About 2/3 of the people I invited were out of town for half-term vacation. Check this ahead of time!

Avoid starting rehearsals on a bank holiday. Especially if it falls on a Monday.

On a bank holiday in Europe (what Americans call a “public holiday”), most businesses are closed. No printing, no deliveries, no banking. So if anything last-minute comes up, you're scr*wed.

And BTW, Europeans take their holidays seriously. And in May/June there are lots of them (religious, Armistice Day, etc). Again: check ahead!

Many businesses in Europe are closed on the weekend.

Here was our double-whammy: if you start on a Monday, you have to finish all your to-do’s by FRIDAY. I didn’t fully process this fact until Thursday – when it was dangerously late (see Armageddon point below).

Most people are closed for the weekend, too. As in, they don't do email. Which can be stressful.

Example: I had a casting freak-out for no reason. I assumed we’d lost an actor when I had no response to an offer made on Saturday, none on Sunday, nor Monday morning. Then Monday afternoon - "Sure!" he replied. No problem. Only for my gray hair.

ATTITUDE MANAGEMENT (Stop expecting the worst! Although...)

See point above. Trust that it's going well until proven otherwise (aka live in the moment).

The challenge:

I come from a family of lawyers. They have an advanced degree in worst-case scenario thinking.

SO - trust - but also be prepared for a logistical Armageddon.

I had two big wake-up call “losses.” Literal ones.

Loss 1: We lost power in the south of France the day I had to book the upright bass, videographer, mic rentals, printing. I ran around like a headless chicken for four hours trying to find power. When it came back on, I got it all done - but not without some mild angina.

Most of these tasks I’d thought about doing the day before. And didn’t.

FINISH the task. Don’t say, “I’m tired, it can wait.” FINISH.

Loss 2: Somewhere on the way from Nice, France to Birmingham, England, my computer went missing. I panicked. Not only because I needed it to work on showcase prep, or because of sensitive passwords on it – but because my last back-up didn’t complete. Would I have to reconstruct my final script before our reading?

Do the back-up. Allow plenty of time.

Slow down. Don't get so frazzled you lose things.

Also, see "Finish to-do’s a day early."

ACTORS

Casting

This was perhaps the toughest, most learning-est part of the journey.

When we've done Oneida in the US, we have a huge network to draw from.

We had no network in the UK.

In the US, we contact actors directly lest their agent dissuade them from doing just a little reading like ours. In the UK, most actors have agents. We carried that fear of agents with us. So in the UK, we decided to cast the show ourselves.

It was tricky. And a ton of work.

Luckily, I am a member of the musical theatre writers organization - MMD (Mercury Musical Development). Martin and Kate connected me with tons of folk - and this is where I really lucked out. Martin put me in touch with a huge mover in the actor-musicians movement, Benjamin Button composer Darren Clark. He has an actor-muso database - which saved our lives!

We combed through the 100+ actor-muso's on that list and ultimately found Max Gallagher, our wonderful MD. He put together a list of appropriate actors.

I tried to vet their resumes - but it was hard! I don't know the theatres, so couldn't judge the quality of the credit. I don't know the UK-only shows, so couldn't tell how good the roles are.

Trickiest of all, most UK actors do not share their work online. I think it's because there's a bigger fear over there that if one little thing is subpar (an accent, a high E) it could lose them a job. Is the UK is more judge-y than the US?

I found no You Tube videos, very few websites. I had to hunt them down on Instagram and X (X! I was stunned. Guess they don’t have my allergy to it because of – well, never mind.)

Ultimately, we had to contact a few actors through agents - and they were great! Not the snarling gatekeepers they are in the US (forgive me, Agents, for my sweeping slander). They want their actors to work. And it didn't increase the fee I paid the actor.

So learn from me: save yourself time. Go through the agents.

They're so well-trained!

Actors in musical theatre have really improved in the 15 years since I've been seeing shows over there. They're always had incredible schools for plays - and now they have entire schools/programs training actor-musicians.

Why is actor-muso so popular?

IT'S CHEAPER! Producers don't have to pay both actors and musicians, since they're the same.

Audiences love it. Adore being amazed by how talented the actors are.

MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY - MONEY!

- Banking

Plan ahead about how to pay people in a different currency. I was grateful I’d already opened an account at Wise, a digital platform (a bit like Paypal). It let me transfer dollars in and convert them to pounds in minutes (seconds, really).

- Don’t constantly calculate the exchange rate. The dollar has been plummeting vs other currencies. I only compared pounds to pounds and chose not to agonize over something I can’t control.

- Be generous. I asked three people for advice on what they would pay the actors, and I offered on the generous side. The actors who were available all said yes. Was a decent salary part of the reason?

I did not ask if I could have gotten more rehearsal hours for that fee. We only had 15 hours – not a lot and not enough. Turns out, they would have given us more. DARN!

ALWAYS ASK. DON'T BE AFRAID TO LOOK

STUPID OR CHEAP.

London may be cheaper overall - but certain things can be really expensive. I was surprised by how much certain things cost.
Printing – one estimate in France was €70 for 60 pages. In London, one same-day estimate was £25 for 20 pages. I ultimately paid 20 pence/page. Seemed cheap by then - but still a lot vs Staples.
Deliveries – London is a big city lumbered with congestion pricing. I found a place to rent me two mic’s for £20. The delivery would have been £90. That, or a two-hour round-trip twice to get/return them myself. Similarly, the delivery fee for the upright bass rental was more than the rental itself.
Finding a cab big enough for "Mother Noyes" was almost the straw that broke this camel's back (ie me)
Insurance! I was shocked! The theatre required it contractually. I panicked into action, was in touch with about 13 companies and was distraught to discover: insurance companies won't cover a foreign entity, neither UK nor US ones. Ultimately, I was brave enough to broach it with the theatre. They waived that clause because it was a small invited audience. Phew. But if you plan to sell tickets or do something - Be prepared!

ENJOYING THE JOURNEY

- ENERGY CONSERVATION

Don't make evening plans when you're in rehearsal. Crises come up. Your energy goes down. In the calendar, schedule "CHILL."

Invest budget in a quiet apartment. If you’re noise-sensitive, it's worth it. A good night’s sleep makes or breaks me.I put that as my first requirement for this stay – and was so grateful I did.

The Universe brought me Valerie (and hubby Blair), who happened to be in London - who I could see for an impromptu drink cause I had no plans!

- STRESS MANAGEMENT

I meditated every day and positive self-talked myself every time I walked anywhere. And still - a bit of panic was always in the background. This has not happened in previous forays of this type.

I wonder: Is increased trouble managing stress chemical - and related to aging??

- JOY is the answer.

Give yourself a creative treat to offset admin hell. One particularly fraught day during prep, I took a break to record a video of a monologue I'd written for my main character, Tirzah. As I spoke her words, I reconnected with why I was subjecting myself to his madness.

BUILDING COMMUNITY

Doing Oneida in London is part of a bigger pivot for me to do more work over there. It's only one hour different than France, rather than the six to NYC.

Industry

I cold-contacted about 125 theatres and producers through Linked In and websites - and many people actually responded, even if to say they couldn't come. Such a welcome surprise, all these possibly-open doors.

They also seem more open to unusual themes or approaches (there was a lot of quirky material at the MMD BEAM festival in Birmingham).

Maybe it's because musical theatre is a younger business there?

Groups

Use the networks you have! I reached out through Facebook and various US-based groups for advice, including the International Center for Women's Playwrights, League of Professional Women (Int'l committee) and Maestra. Members gave invaluable advice on logistics, casting and plain old moral support!

And MMD was huge. One guy from a What's App group even offered to pick up our bass and schlep it down to central London - and I'd never met him! If you have any interest in working there, join up.

Friends

I don't have a lot of them in London. But those I do have showed up for me big-time, both by helping with the process (Tim Prager offered rehearsal space, Hilary King babysat our upright bass) and coming to the show (Sherry Bokser extended her stay and Rob Hartmann even flew in to be there).

HUGE SHOUT-OUT to my friends!

BOTTOM-BOTTOM-LINE?

AM I GLAD I DID IT?

YES.