The musicals you can’t miss in Madrid
One of the best parts of Spain’s capital city is the wide range of cultural activities one can enjoy there. The most remarkable area might be the one related to musicals, since these productions have become incredibly popular and are still reaching a wider audience who enjoy and value all the work behind them.
Every year, new shows are launched and run for several seasons in Madrid. They remain relevant first by word of mouth, second thanks to the awards they get. The billboards keep changing and hosting new productions, but there are some musicals that just have succeeded in staying on their feet. Those are the ones we’re about to discuss here: the key musicals one simply can’t miss when visiting Madrid.
The Lion King in the Lope de Vega theatre. | pvizoso, Wikimedia
If we talk about Madrid’s musicals, we are compelled to mention their unquestionable king —no pun intended. That is: The Lion King. It’s perhaps the biggest musical production ever brought to Spain. It came straight from Broadway and it already amounts to 100 million viewers worldwide, which makes it a privilege to enjoy this musical in Madrid. From the amazing cast, which has bewitched the audience through all the changes the production has undergone, to the incredible staging, with all those structures that bring life to the fictional world we all know and love, The Lion King has broken all records. The musical premiered on the 20th October 2011, which means it has been running for more than a decade now. And it looks like the show will go on.
Another veteran musical is La Llamada, a show that has been running in Teatro Lara since 2014. This musical, created by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, was first staged in the theater’s hall, but when the scenography was slightly improved, it was moved to the big stage. The production is still quite modest, because the key aspect here is the story’s novelty and its sense of humor. La Llamada tells the story of a teenager who has a vision of God while staying at a summer camp managed by nuns. The peculiarity of the story lies on the fact that those revelations are always accompanied by Whitney Houston songs. Due to the story’s uniqueness, a movie production starring the original cast of the musical hit the theaters in 2017. La Llamada has already attracted a million viewers, who have been singing, dancing and celebrating life in many different ways through this delightful story.
The Bodyguard in Madrid. | BroadwaySpain, Wikimedia
Running since 2018, The Bodyguard is almost a veteran as well. It’s based on the popular 1992 movie starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner, and this musical production also follows the story of Rachel Marron, a popstar who is forced to hire a bodyguard after an incident of harassment. The Bodyguard is a two-hour tribute to all the intense emotions and songs that blew everyone away in movie theaters thirty years ago, and that’s precisely why it’s been running since in Madrid’s stages.
There are other musicals, such as Anastasia, that have succeeded in attracting thousands of viewers in the last years. The beloved animated movie was adapted into a musical in New York and soon after it arrived at Madrid, proving that Spain’s capital city has strong international connections. Anastasia was first staged in Teatro Coliseum, Gran Vía, on October 2018.
As it has been mentioned before, Madrid’s musical offer changes season by season and Broadway’s newest productions keep coming to theaters, usually setting the current trends. However, regardless of the different shows running each time of the year, it’s crystal clear that Madrid will always have a wonderful musical to enjoy.
