The three calls that made possible the historic premiere of 'Alma' at the Tivoli

BarcelonaThe premiere of the newly created, large-scale musical in Catalan Soul, which opened last season at the National Theatre And now he returns to the Tivoli Theatre; it was an extraordinary phenomenon. The review Word of mouth quickly filled the Sala Gran, and the audience ended up giving a standing ovation every night. On opening night, Maria José Balañá, manager of three large Barcelona theaters, was in the audience. She was captivated and felt a strong desire that this talent and effort wouldn't die there. "I thought it was amazing. There's talent, there's hard work, there's a brutal intensity. As we were leaving, I told them, 'If you want to revive it, count us in.'" Bitò's producer, Josep Domènech, also attended: "I was blown away. It's emotion, it's magic, it's fantastic," he says. He immediately looked for who was behind it and called them: "If you ever want to do it in a private theater, let's talk." Andreu Buenafuente and Sílvia Abril also attended, and they were "blown away." They asked Mercè Puy, the producer at El Terrat, who had known the project from the beginning, to fight to bring it back.

"They made three calls to us saying the same thing: 'What do you need? This can't stay here,'" recalls Silvia Fiestas, executive producer ofSoulWith three such important suitors, and even the interest of a legend like Antonio Banderas, the company felt compelled to attempt a historic milestone: to transfer a major original Catalan-language musical from public to private theater, as regularly happens on Broadway and in the West End, with iconic shows like Hamilton and The miserable ones

They proposed a joint venture. The business model has been that El Terrat, Bitò, and Marianna (Balaña en Vivo) have created a new joint venture, Produccions amb Ànima, which holds 51% of the project, while the company that registered the production company Vero Vero holds 49%. The intention is that Soul It has a long run: a shortened Catalan version, a Spanish version in Madrid, and a national tour. They've even presented the project in New York's public theaters. "It's a dream, but we're in talks with the Brooklyn Theatre," says Puy.

Is there an audience for Catalan?

In recent years, the supply of large-scale musicals with original librettos and music in Catalan has been scarce because few companies have the production capacity and risk-taking to fill a 1,500-seat theater. Language has traditionally been seen as a handicap, although the Sea and sky Dagoll Dagom drew 327,000 spectators at the Victoria last season. "I think it matters more whether the title is well-known or not than the language," says Domènech. And the general public is mostly familiar with classics like West Side Story, Chicago and The Phantom of the OperaTitles that arrive in Madrid franchises, or, in a smaller format, titles that have left their mark in Catalan such as The Little Prince either Blood brothers, currently showing at the Condal Theatre

That's why public support has also been crucial from the beginning. The idea came to fruition thanks to the RIIIING! musical competition.which were organized by El Terrat and the Grec Festival in 2023. Then, everything aligned perfectly: the Catalan Ministry of Culture created a grant program to promote the use of Catalan in big-budget musicals, and the director of the National Theatre, Carme Portaceli, championed the development of this brilliant show by talented young performers. In this second run at the Tivoli Theatre, the Catalan Institute of Culture (ICEC) is investing again: a €200,000 grant, a €200,000 loan to be repaid, and an additional €250,000 contingent on box office revenue. The total production cost is €1.8 million. Ticket prices range from €30 to €60.

Reassembly, not replacement

Soul It is the first musical in Catalan that Balañá has launched to produce and is the second Catalan musical to be seen at the Teatre Tívoli in the last 40 years - until now only Catalan musicals had been shown there The Pirates by Dagoll Dagom in 1998 and La Cubana—. The forecast is optimistic: they will run for thirteen weeks, with 120,000 tickets on sale for 88 performances. Before the premiere, as many tickets have been sold in advance as during the entire season at the Teatre Nacional, some 17,000. The producers admit there are nerves. On stage there are 16 performers, 15 technicians working, and 10 live musicians. "Each performance day there are about sixty payrolls to pay. The cost of each performance is higher than in Mamma Mia!"Explains Domènech.

The economic and creative effort has been significant. "We didn't imagine it would be so expensive to move it to a private theater. Everything has been done anew. It's a restaging, not a revival," Domènech states. Creatively, there are also changes: "There are new actors in the cast, new songs, different storylines, new cuts and scenes, and we've condensed it to two and a half hours," say directors Oriol Burés and Víctor G. Casademunt. They have carved out a niche for themselves in a male-dominated world like that of Hollywood film studios in the 1930s. The stage will feature names like Paula Malia, Diana Roig, Mireia Portas, Annabel Totusaus, Aina Sánchez, and Casademunt and Burés themselves, who have previously shared the stage in Love came in a taxi, of La Cubana, at the Romea. The myth says that they met atop the ship of Sea and sky as amateur actors and fans of Catalan musical theatre. The story continues.