Niels van Doormalen (23) from Valkenswaard might now have had a safe, permanent job at a large musical company. But he chose differently and became the youngest musical producer in the Netherlands. Friday he opens his own company in the center of Den Bosch. And this fall, his first musical will be in the theater: “Because the blood is crawling where it can’t go.”
The story of Niels saw a musical for the first time as a child and was immediately enchanted. In Niels’ case by ‘Wicked’ and ‘Soldaat van Oranje’: “I thought that was the most beautiful thing in the world.” So he wanted to join. He went to the preparatory training for musical actors in Tilburg. “But that was not for me”, he looks back. “I realized I couldn’t really do anything with that. As a musical actor you cannot determine anything, you cannot make anything yourself. I would depend on what is offered and then stand in it like a doll.”
Niels found out that he likes other things: organizing. And he wanted to study. He completed his propaedeutic year in Communication Sciences in Tilburg and studied Theater Studies. After that, thanks to crowdfunding and the Van den Ende Foundation, he was allowed to go to London to be the first Dutchman to follow a special training as a musical producer.
And now he is a musical producer, with his own Oatmilk Studio in Den Bosch. With that name Niels tells what he wants to achieve: “In London I was in a coffee shop talking to people about what the future of musicals could be. And I saw the young people there drinking oat milk: a plant-based alternative to cow’s milk. They opt for a nicely poured coffee. But also for sustainability. I want to mean something to that generation.”
“I am often the youngest at a theater performance. I find it quite painful.”
Niels is disappointed that he sees so few young people in the theater: “When I am at a performance, I am often the youngest in the audience. I find that quite painful. If your ambition is not to attract young people to the theater, there will be no theater left in twenty years.”
Van Doormalen hopes to succeed by collaborating with influencers and companies that appeal to young people. So if the halls are soon filled with elderly people at his first performance, his mission has failed? “I am happy with all the audience. I don’t make one production and all changes are slow. Of course I like it when I can start a revolution. But attracting more young people will probably take a few years.”
“I really enjoy big musicals. But also opera.”
Don’t think that Van Doormalen is going to bring big musicals from Broadway to the Netherlands. But isn’t that what comes to mind when you think of musical: show, glitter, glamor and songs? “I really enjoy that. But I also enjoy opera, Boukje Schweigman or Toneelgroep Oostpool. I don’t like those boxes. I want to show that a small musical can also be relevant and interesting.”
His first musical is ‘Before After’. The performance was created in corona time and has only been shown in a live stream with British actors. Van Doormalen will stage the show for the first time. It is about the meeting between a couple that has broken up. One of them has amnesia. So then the relationship can start again, or not.
The performance can be seen in dozens of theaters across the country from November.
ALSO READ: Niels (20) is the first Dutch person to start musical training in London, now the money is still available
Here’s an excerpt from Before After:
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