Welcome to Georgia – The Musical, One Year On
INTERVIEW
Welcome to Georgia – The Musical was premiered in February 2018 at the Music & Drama State Theater in Tbilisi. During the first season, the show was played 18 times for more than 2000 international guests from 60 different countries.
Now well into its third season, its popularity is growing and there have been requests to take the show on an international tour. GEORGIA TODAY caught up with Natia Amiridze, Managing Partner, to find out the latest news.
One year on- tell us the highlights.
We’ve hosted more than 4000 international guests from 60 different countries and from them received mainly positive feedback and reviews about the show. There has also been a lot of interest from the Georgian audience, as well as from Georgians who live abroad.
We had a number of extra shows booked by various brands as “welcome events” for guests attending international conferences in Georgia. This is a new and brilliant opportunity for us to deliver more shows for the MICE industry.
And we’ve had several promoters from different European cities contact us and we’re working on a plan to take the show on tour.
What challenges have you faced and how have you overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges is to have to keep explaining to the Georgian audience why the tickets are “so expensive”. It’s no surprise to hear the question because Georgians are used to buying theater tickets for less than the price of cinema tickets, though we in the industry don’t agree with this. We inform them that this is a commercial project that was initiated and fully financed by the managing team. To be honest, we would love to reduce the ticket price in future, but right now it’s just not possible due to the small capacity of the theater.
What changes did you make between seasons and how much did audience feedback affect your decisions?
We added one character, Aniko, played by Ana Kurtubadze, an actress with a great voice who brought an additional musical flavor to the show. We also added two songs, which the audience just love.
We are quite often asked to remove the dialogue where we mention that some Georgian territories are currently occupied. These requests come from various tourist agencies working on incoming Russian tourists, who offer to bring more guests to the show if this phrase is removed. However, we believe that this moment is one of the highlights of the show and we are very proud of it, so it will never be removed.
What are your future plans/dreams for the show?
We are constantly working on making the show even better and in future we’ll be moving to a new theater with a bigger capacity and possibilities.
We’re working hard to take the show on tour abroad as we believe it is a perfect presentational performance about Georgia with all its highlights.
To find out more or buy tickets, use these links:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/musical.ge/
Instagram: @musical.ge
By Katie Ruth Davies
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