FIM

The Musicians’ Union (BMU) is fight­ing to save the War Horse band and keep music live in the­atres across the UK.

The National Theatre (NT) has attempt­ed to ter­mi­nate the con­tracts of the five mem­bers of the War Horse band engaged to per­form in the West End pro­duc­tion of the show which con­tin­ues to run at the New London Theatre. 

The NT removed the band from the show in March and replaced them with a record­ing, made out­side of the UK, with­out the Union’s agreement.

This deci­sion not only threat­ens the liveli­hoods of the indi­vid­ual musi­cians con­cerned but under­mines the prin­ci­ple of live music in West End the­atre. A live per­for­mance should be just that — live – and any move to replace the live music ele­ment of a show with a record­ing sig­nif­i­cant­ly deval­ues the the­atri­cal experience.

Please sign the peti­tion, fol­low @WeAreTheMU for updates and use #KeepMusicLive on twit­ter to spread the word.