Julia Gomez Cora, Director General of Stage Entertainment
In an exclusive interview with Caribbean News Digital, Julia Gomez Cora, director general of Stage Entertainment, speaks about the fifteenth anniversary of her company’s big break in Spain and how things have evolved since then. From the opening debut with “The Beauty and The Beast” till now, success and full houses have been the name of the game for Stage Entertainment.
Julia, first of all I want to congratulate you as Stage Entertainment celebrated in December its 15th anniversary in Spain. Its first production was “The Beauty and The Best”. Why did you decide to get cracking with this title?
Because of the passion we feel for the show, the magic of the musical show, which is capable of making the audience live unique moments and unforgettable feelings. We didn’t have this kind of program in Spain and we decided to create it.
“The Beauty and the Best” was followed by “Les Miserables”, “The Phantom of the Opera”, “The Lion King”, “Mamma Mia!”, up to 17 plays. Over the past 15 years you have attracted more than 11 million viewers in 12,000 performances. What do you think the main elements of such a successful career are? What are the keys to your marketing and promotion actions?
The key characteristics of our productions are the quality of the proposals and the environment where they take place, thus creating a magical and complete experience. No marketing campaign can sell something that is not good and establish a connection with the viewer’s deepest feelings and emotions. A blend of the fine selection of titles with the highest professionalism and quality, conceived with those stories that get the public moved. The rest just flowed
Such plays as “Cabaret” were very successful in Broadway, especially “My Fair Lady”, based on Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion”, which was not only the longest-running musical show in the history of New York, but it has been described as the perfect musical. With his own style, Manolo Fabregas takes the dichotomy of the cockney and the British society man into Spanish, but it was in Mexico. What have been the main challenges and achievements of its staging in Spain?
When we start working on a new production, we always think how to do it so as to reach out to the Spanish public, but at the same time we want them to enjoy it as the original one. Bringing those foreign pieces is a pretty high risk, but we place particular emphasis on the selection, by means of an excellent casting and careful work with the version. So we produce musicals the meet the highest quality standards, just like those that can be found in Broadway or London’s West End.
Spain is a country of great tradition in terms of musical shows and La Zarzuela is an example. However, there were people who thought that the musical genre wouldn’t get by a period of crisis, but they were wrong. What do you think about this, after having fostered the musical genre just as it’s conceived in the postmodern era?
I believe that our moment was good, but we were lucky too. Nevertheless, the rest of the time it’s been a huge and determined bet on the development of a new live entertainment concept that, with our high-quality proposals, could touch the heart of a demanding public that fell in love with the genre and, nowadays, those viewers are our greatest ambassadors. When the crisis began, musicals were positioned as a leisure option. We belled the cat and brought “The Lion King” to Madrid, for instance, or carried out a tour with “Beauty and the Beast” and “Les Miserables”.
The 21 percent IVA is an up-to-the-minute matter in terms of performing arts, which according to many people, it punishes culture. What do you make of it from the theater point of view, not only as culture, but also as a great tourism attraction and booster?
The 21 percent IVA is unsustainable, impoverishing and demotivating for the cultural sector and the development of artworks or actions that foster cultural consumption. The problem is that the governmental agenda doesn’t include culture and the position it deserves in the society.
In 2012 you were ranked one of the 100 leading women of the country. What do you think about the role played by women as performing arts entrepreneurs?
I don’t like to be seen as a different executive because I’m a woman. When I arrived in Spain I was a rare bird, but today there are many capable women that silently build a more sensitive, creative and committed country. There is a growing number of women holding positions of high technical complexity in the performing arts realm. Nonetheless, just like in other sector, there aren’t many executive women, but the figure is going up.
You’ve said that you’re planning to produce the first Spanish musical by 2016. This year we celebrate the fourth centennial of Cervantes’ passing. How is that project presently doing? Are there any other plans related to the production of shows and the creation of new contents?
We’re living a great moment, our 15th anniversary in Spain includes several projects. We’re looking forward to having two shows at the same time in Barcelona this year, as well as carrying out two tours throughout the Spanish geography and producing our first musical by a Spanish author. So this is going to be our best year in terms of the volume of operations. The musical genre is alive and kicking like never before!
