Industry News: Broadway Licensing Group sets up West End outpost for UK push

One of the world’s biggest licensors of musicals and plays, Broadway Licensing Global, is planning a big expansion in the UK and Europe, and is opening a West End office.

Their new physical presence on Great Newport Street in the West End will help them expand their business to professional and amateur producers in the UK.

Broadway Licensing Global was founded in 2017 and has a catalogue of over 900 titles, and represents more than 8,000 plays and musicals including 39 Tony Award winners and 49 Pulitzer Prize winners. Works in their portfolio include titles from Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Lynn Nottage, Alan Menken, Stephen King, Elvis, the Bee-Gees, the Beatles, and Harry Potter Theatrical Productions.

They recently took on the amateur licensing rights for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (main picture), which continues to play in the West End and on Broadway, and has been a major reason for the UK push.

Sean Cercone, Founder and CEO of Broadway Licensing Global, said in a statement: “A physical office in the UK will enable the company to ensure best-in-class practices in the representation of our underlying rights holders and our growing collection of titles. Now, with the inclusion of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, our team is eager to shoulder the responsibility to expand its footprint with additional physical locations in key territories across the globe.”

Competitors in the space with a London presence include Music Theatre International, which was founded in 1952 by legendary Broadway songwriter Frank Loesser and orchestrator Don Walke. They license over 5,000 professional and amateur productions a year, with 400 titles in their catalogue including Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Mean Girls, Waitress, Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, Mamma Mia!, Matilda the Musical, Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and more.

Cameron Mackintosh also has his own CML Licensing, for the licensing of his musicals in the UK and some other territories.

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Main photo: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre. Photo by Manuel Harlan