Mr Millerman Presents is a theatre company that successfully raised funds for the UK premiere of the American musical, YANK. We spoke to Ben, the company’s founder and one of the show’s producers, about the success of YANK following on from the crowdfunding. He discussed how crowdfunding offers a different way for a show to raise money, which in this case proved to be advantageous in reaching out to new people. He also talked about the challenging and surprising nature of the work required.

The show tells the story of several American soldiers going through basic training for the army in the 1940s and explores a series of LGBT themes and those around masculinity. YANK has been Ben’s biggest and most prolific show to date due to the initial 5-week run in Manchester being met with a lot of interest from both industry and general audiences. The engagement was such that the show was subsequently transferred to London for 9 weeks with “the same cast, same set, same costumes and everything” that they’d been able to get from the funding raised via the campaign used across both locations.

Ben discussed how crowdfunding offered a different and unusual way to fundraise for a show compared to the typical route of commercial investment. This meant they were not relying on the same people as always and allowed them “to tap into people who wouldn’t normally put money into a show, or are not aware that you can put money into shows”. Significantly, members of the public who wouldn’t be able to invest a large amount of money were still able to support the show.

Ben talked to us about the challenge in maintaining attention and interest, particularly related to social media and how he was unsure if it would have been worth it for a smaller production. The effort required to keep up awareness far exceeded the team’s expectations, which meant that “some of our marketing responsibilities and focus actually went on marketing the crowdfunding as opposed to marketing the project or the actual show itself”, as both marketing campaigns were happening alongside each other. Interestingly, on reflection Ben said that if he were to do another crowdfunding campaign, he would allocate a higher percentage of their marketing budget towards the crowdfunding, and look to outsource it to a marketing company, which indicates that running a campaign is not a straightforward process.

To find out more about the company behind YANK! - Mr Millerman Presents - including all past and upcoming shows, visit their website.