The Old Joint Stock’s theatre manager, James Edge, talks about bringing exciting new productions to the Birmingham pub venue...

Birmingham’s Old Joint Stock Theatre will bring a tale of family, friendship and the desire for freedom to the stage this spring in a brand-new production of The Mad Ones.

The musical, which opened off-Broadway in 2017 under the former title of The Unauthorized Autobiography Of Samantha Brown, centres on the character of 18-year-old Sam as she reaches a crossroads in her young life.

Sitting in her car, keys in hand, she is trying to decide whether to take the safe route and stay home, or start the engine, take off and reach for the unknown. She hears the voice of her best friend, Kelly, urging her to go, while her mother and boyfriend press her to stay... The story then moves forward from that scenario.

“There are a lot of flashbacks, and Kelly is there talking to Sam throughout the show,” explains producer and Old Joint Stock Theatre manager James Edge (pictured). “The basis of the story is Sam making a decision about whether she wants to stay with this overbearing mother and do what her mother wants her to do, or take a risk for the first time in her life, see what the future holds and drive off. It’s a really beautiful piece.”

James is always keen to bring new work to Birmingham audiences and feels The Mad Ones is an ideal production for his venue.

“A big thing when producing shows for the Old Joint Stock is that you’ve got a 70 to 80 capacity, so there are limitations. You can’t get massive bands in there; you can’t get huge casts. The Mad Ones is a cast of four, with two or three band members, and I thought it would be the perfect show for our space.

“You can relate to every character in the show: the person who wants to stay; the one who wants to take the risk; even the mother, because she was a young, free spirit once, but the way her life turned out wasn’t the way she wanted it to.

“There’s definitely something for everyone. If you’re a lover of musical theatre, if you’re a lover of intimate storytelling, this is the show to come and see. It’s simple and stripped-back, but it hits you in the heart. It’s an absolutely gorgeous piece - a really pure, beautiful story with great songs."

James took over as theatre manager at the Old Joint Stock in February last year. A former actor, he also runs the theatre website West End Best Friend. And his experience on stage has helped him hunt out lesser-known productions to showcase.

“Before running theatres, I was an actor for eight years, mainly doing musical theatre. When training at drama school, you spend a lot of time looking for songs for your rep, so you get to know a lot of the less-well-known writers. You start following their journey and seeing the shows they make. I also hear about new shows because of West End Best Friend, and I always try to listen to new cast recordings when they come out.

“The Old Joint Stock has really forged a name for itself with high-quality fringe theatre, especially musical theatre. When I took over, we did a musical called I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, and that went down really well, so I’ve been looking for the next right thing. I love the thought of producing shows that people haven’t really heard of yet, but which will become their next favourite show.”

James ran The Town & Gown Theatre in Cambridge before taking over the helm at the Old Joint Stock, back in his home city.

“When I was an actor, I performed in about four or five shows at the Old Joint Stock, and some of my favourite experiences were at this theatre. I think it’s a hidden gem. We’d just had Covid, it was slowly trying to build its audiences back up, and they were looking for a manager. I heard about that and thought, that’s the role for me.

“The Old Joint Stock has so much potential, and it’s such a gorgeous building. I have visions for its future. You look at the London pub theatres and what they can achieve, and we can do that here in Birmingham. We are a receiving house, but also we’ve just produced four in-house productions between August and December of last year. I’d love to get to the point where most of the year we are staging our own in-house productions of new work and unknown work.”

James has two colleagues on the team at the Old Joint Stock: theatre supervisors Liam Alexandru and Emily Lloyd.

“We are working rigorously to get the theatre on the map, get audiences through the door, and do bigger and bigger projects each time. We’re doing the musical First Date in August -  it’s on Broadway, and I don’t think it’s had a live production here in the UK yet. We’re doing that for three weeks. And going forward, I’d love us to be doing productions for four weeks, then five weeks, and running for a few months at a time and maybe even in rep.

“We’ll also start looking for sister venues where we can take Old Joint Stock Theatre productions around the UK - I’d love to take The Mad Ones out on the road.”

Producing in-house shows is a lot of work for three people, but James believes the benefits pay off.

“With your big, standard theatres, you have a big team to do all the different tasks, but with fringe theatre you just don’t have that budget. You’re selling to small audiences due to capacity limitations, so you do it all.

“So when you take on producing a show, you do absolutely everything. You find the show, you sort out the licensing, you do the casting yourself, you get the director on board, you do marketing - you organise everything. Every single bit of prop, costume and set, you make, source, beg, steal or borrow yourself. It’s a real labour of love compared with a visiting show, but there is something very special about an in-house production.

“Fringe theatre is unique. When people come to fringe theatre and watch the show, there’s something about that smaller space. The audience energy dictates the production, and that’s the magic of fringe theatre. You find that as soon as people have been once or twice, they just keep coming back.”

The Mad Ones plays at the Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham, from Wednesday 10 - Saturday 20 April.

For information about all upcoming productions at the venue, visit oldjointstock.co.uk

By Diane Parkes