Corrie Street of Dreams in further troubles

Both companies behind the critically, and patron panned, musical Street of Dreams have gone into administration.

The Coronation Street musical, fronted by Paul O’Grady with a host of Corrie legends including Julie Goodyear and Brian Capron, failed to appeal to audiences earlier this year.

The spin-doctors had tried to gloss-over the fact many audience members felt the show was more Street of Dross than dreams by suggesting it was going on hold due to “popularity” stating non-existent standing ovations and praise had lead to its postponement. While some news outlets reported this unquestioned few believed the reasoning for its sudden axing.

Now the administrators state that financial problems and a lack of confidence in the musical have lead to the collapse of the companies involved in staging it.

The show launched in Manchester, but after only a few days into its run it became clear audiences felt ‘let down’ by the standard of the production. A tour was cancelled which would have seen the musical visit Dublin, Belfast and Newcastle.

It wasn’t the first time the show had been postponed; the Manchester premiere was put back by two months earlier this year.  When it did finally open it was deemed as nonsense with little in the way of structure or decent scripts. Playing up to the thought that Corrie fans will ‘buy into’ anything Weatherfield related no matter how little thought or effort is put into it. However with expensive ticket prices fans expected better.

The companies behind the venture  – Reckless Entertainment and Street of Dreams LTD – are now in the hands of administrators.

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News a spokesperson said “Our appointment follows months of uncertainty and problems surrounding Street of Dreams. The company has suffered from a funding deficit and a lack of confidence in the venture, but with the right level of investment it is hoped that production of the show can be relaunched.

“The production has been five years in the making and held two sell out nights at  Manchester Arena which demonstrates the huge potential success this venture could have with new finance through a new vehicle.”

The two “sell out” nights saw fans of Coronation Street leave before the final curtain and 100s of complaints to various news sites about the appalling quality of the production. Paul O’Grady was reported as noting the cast had failed to be paid, scripts were rushed and ad-libbing was required to try and fill voids in what little story the show carried while he also alleged some of the sets were not finished on time.

However, he decided against leaving telling The Stage in May, “If I go, it gives them the perfect excuse to close everything and blame it on me’..So I stuck it out, as did the rest of the cast, because we felt a commitment to this thing, which we had been involved in for so long.”

While in the same month Street of Dreams’ PR department spent a few hours coming up with a statement full of laughable spin, which insulted the audiences intelligence, stating,

“Following the world premiere in Manchester of Street of Dreams, the new musical event celebrating Coronation Street that received standing ovations last week [not noting the walk-outs and audience members told us there was no ovation], Reckless Entertainment, the show’s producers, are now keen to revisit the production and further develop ideas for the UK tour.”

It must have been a first for a show which was seemingly such an instant hit with audiences that rather than the usual system of adding tour dates the overnight smash had been dropped entirely from its forthcoming tour.