Interview: Richard Crawford and Gary Lloyd on The Nutcracker Noir

Photo: Matt Crockett

Immersive Rumours: Hi Richard and Gary. Thanks for speaking with us today. Do you mind introducing yourselves and telling us about what your roles are for The Nutcracker Noir?

Richard Crawford: I’m Richard Crawford, and I’m the artistic director at Secret Theatre and DesignScene. My role for The Nutcracker Noir is creator, writer, and co-director alongside Gary Lloyd.

Gary Lloyd: I'm Gary Lloyd, and I am the choreographer and co-director of The Nutcracker Noir.

IR: Richard, can you give us a brief history of Secret Theatre and some of the company’s past productions? It's been several years since you last staged a public show in London.

RC: Absolutely. It all started in New York when I was running the Brooklyn Studio Lab. After having seen some of Punchdrunk’s work just before moving over there, I really wanted to experiment with audience interaction, which culminated in the world stage debut of Edward Scissorhands in 2009. Shortly after that, we established Secret Theatre. We’d often launch shows in London, because that was the place to cut your teeth, but they were always very low-key. You had a much smaller audience size to capture, which made it a little easier.

We’ve always been different from the other big companies because we’ve been mobile from day one, which meant that if we had a show designed for an audience capacity of between 100 and 300, it was a lot easier to take it on the road and explore the world, whether that's in Europe, Madrid or Hong Kong - where I've done at least 10 shows over the last decade.

Two years ago, we were acquired by DesignScene after I worked on a number of corporate activations with them. Alongside those brand activations, which took us to Cannes Lions and New York, amongst other places, we continued to have commercial ticketed shows with Secret Theatre, including a brand new IP in Hong Kong called Art of Dying, and in Singapore, we launched Last Night at Studio 54.

Photo: Matt Crockett

IR: How did the idea for The Nutcracker Noir first come about?

RC: Over the last few years, I’ve done quite a few dining experiences across Europe and Asia and was trying to think if there was a time and a place to put that vision and really go big on it. 

Attila Keskin, the owner of DesignScene, and I had been banding around ideas and eventually landed on this one, which is an immersive adaptation of The Nutcracker with amazing food woven into the script as part of the narrative and the evening. This show is really an accumulation of everything - all of our learnings and all the magic we’ve created - with the addition of food.

Attila is quite a special guy. He’s been in the industry doing events for 30+ years. If you say, ‘Elton John’s got a new song out,’ he’ll go, ‘Oh yeah, I remember doing Elton John’s birthday party in 2003.’ I remember saying to him, ‘I’m writing a show that features Diana Ross,’ and he said, ‘I remember doing a show for Diana Ross in Marrakech.’ The guy’s done everything at the highest standard.

It’s really wonderful to be working with him and Gary, alongside Jenny McNeill from Feast + Fable, on this production. There are a lot of really creative geniuses getting involved in this show, and it’s really exciting to be working with all of them on this, taking Secret Theatre to the next level.

IR: The inspiration behind the show is Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet, but The Nutcracker Noir is a modern reworking of that, right?

GL: Yeah. When Richard and I first spoke about the show, he presented a very different version of The Nutcracker, which is super contemporary. All of these characters live in the now. There's, of course, Tchaikovsky woven all the way through it, but there are times that will feel as if Tchaikovsky’s great-great-granddaughter became Chappell Roan.

Musically, there’s a bit of pop in there, some jazz and American classics, sing-along moments, a bit of disco and Christmas and current chart music. Each moment really helps describe the history and the fabric of each of the characters. It’s got that classic Baz Luhrmann feel in that it's taking from all these genres and mashing them up. People are going to find it a challenge to stay seated for as long as they have to, but they will be allowed to get up and dance at the end…

Photo: Matt Crockett

IR: The experience begins with a number of immersive rooms before audiences enter the main performance for the main performance and meal. What can you tell us about the journey audiences will go on?

RC: You know when you see those Christmas movies where the guy’s working in the cold city and goes back to the pub in his hometown and people are merry and singing, and you get a drink in your hand straight away? That’s the entry point to the show.

It starts with audiences moving through a number of different rooms, a lot like when you move through The Kit Kat Club at Cabaret. In our show, it begins in a Christmas shop, which’ll be open during the day and will be a really cool and kitsch pop-up experience where you can get Christmas gifts and things related to the show. You’ll meet 10 characters in that opening that are all intertwined in the story, which I love.

Without giving too much away, there’s a very interesting moment where we’re using projection mapping to really bring this story to life, and as you move into the space, there are all these performer-driven moments too. 

The currency of my shows is the performers, and to be that close to performers as good as we’ve got is very exhilarating. We’ve actually got some of the Cabaret cast and team in The Nutcracker Noir, so that is what’s going to be quite mesmerising, I think. You’ll see performers walking through the space at the beginning, and have the freedom to walk around yourself. I’ve been to some shows, and there are no performers there, which is something I wanted to change for this one. Let’s have amazing performers greet you so you can feel that talent right away.

IR: London’s one of the world’s leading cities for immersive work, with many of the scene’s best-known companies hailing from here. When you were in the planning phase for The Nutcracker Noir, how did you approach creating an experience that stands out against some of the city’s other immersive dining experiences, like The Lost Estate’s The Great Christmas Feast?

RC: I think it's a great point, and you need to understand your competitors. You used the example there of The Lost Estate, which is at the forefront of immersive dining experiences around Christmas. I went to their experiences, hung out with Ash, the chef, and I love what they do. I sat there and thought, ‘Can I do something different to this?’, and for me, yes.

The Nutcracker and A Christmas Carol are very different. [The Lost Estate’s The Great Christmas Feast] is very text-driven, very actor-driven. They have one performer who does a fantastic job of bringing that story to life, but I kind of want more. We have at least 12 performers bringing it to life with dance, with music, with everything.

I went to lots of different dining experiences, and I thought, ‘Is it possible to get these dancers, these singers, these actors who are on the West End into an immersive dining show?’. Creating an immersive dining experience done to a West End level was the ambition, and making it really different from the other things that are going on at Christmas. It’s going to be very different in terms of going on more of a journey. At the beginning, you meet all the characters. There's a nice balance of dance, music and narrative which makes it, to me, really, really exciting.

It's flamboyant, it's bright, it's West End, it's song, it's dance, it's immersive, it's intimate immersive experiences, so it's very different from the other offerings available this time of year, and I think that's the nice thing. People who love The Nutcracker, love immersive theatre, and love food being intertwined in the story like Gingerline do beautifully, it's going to be right up their street.

Photo: Matt Crockett

IR: Alongside the immersive elements and main performance, there’s also a three-course meal designed by Jenny McNeill from Feast + Fable. How is the show’s menu going to integrate with the world you’ve created?

GL: I think from a staging perspective, what was really important to us was that this whole experience is cohesive, and our guests come out feeling like they've had an amazing immersive experience, and they've watched a spectacular show and enjoyed incredible food. We wanted to make sure that the script and what we do with our staging combine all of these things. So, along with that, the menu has been designed by Richard and Jenny to coincide with the story. So, it's super cohesive in many different ways. We’re planning on using the waiting team as part of the cast. We're hoping to have a seamless relationship between storytelling, musical numbers and food arriving so that the audience has just got this almost 5D experience that never stops.

IR: Gary, alongside co-directing, you’re also the choreographer for the show. Previously, you’ve worked on shows such as Heathers and Thriller Live! in the West End. How different is your approach to planning choreography for a venue like Protein Studios, where the audience is a lot closer to the action and surrounding the stage instead of in front of it?

GL: I think similarly to combining the dining in with the immersive and the storytelling and the choreography, it's about the audience getting to know each of these characters. I'll be working on the individual movement of each character. There's a richness to what the audience is seeing, both from a stage perspective and when they're meeting them in the immersive rooms and around the space. It is tight, and so we've got a couple of performance spaces with a catwalk that joins them. It’s very much in the round, with tables all facing different directions, so the challenge really is ensuring that when you've got something downstage on the circular element that's right in the centre, everybody further back has got something to look at. It's about creating choreography that is 360 and is able to share that information so that everybody else in the cast is able to kind of translate that through their movement as well.

IR: Is working in a 360-degree environment like this a refreshing challenge for you?

GL: Well, I've done a couple of in-the-round or in-the-square productions previously, and it is challenging. Especially when you've got a protagonist that's delivering an important bit of information. You want to make sure that everybody gets not just the dialogue or the movement or whatever it is, but they see the emotion on their face. We’ve been working on this show for a very long time, and all of these conversations are part of it, making sure that the experience is fully 360 and fully enriched and just taking in the format of the room. It's a very big production in that sense. 

Photo: Matt Crockett

IR: The show’s also got quite a formidable cast, with performers who’ve previously appeared in everything from Hamilton to Cabaret and Wicked. How has it been having the show’s cast all under one roof as things ramp up?

GL: I think between Richard and me, we've worked with most of these actors before, so there's a real sense of familiarity and knowing how the collaboration is going to work. We cast very carefully based on people's personality, as well as their talent and experience. The space will be challenging as much as it will be rewarding, so you need people who are team players, who are flexible, and who understand that every show is going to be different because the audience's reaction to them is going to be different. We've got this super high level of talent, but we've got wonderful, pragmatic and down-to-earth humans at the same time.

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The Nutcracker Noir will run at Protein Studios near Shoreditch High Street from 26th November to 21st December 2025. Tickets are priced from £48 for Bar Seating and £180 for a shared Club Table (inclusive of a three-course meal). To book tickets and find out more, visit nutcracker-noir.co.uk