More than 330,000 spectators have passed through the Victòria Theater since last September to see the third replacement of Tuesday. Now the blind has dropped, allegedly forever, being the most watched show of the season in Barcelona, perhaps in history, with a collection that could exceed 10 million euros. These figures demonstrate the weight of the musical in the memory of the Catalans and the company that has made it possible, Dagoll Dagom, as a backbone of our collective imaginary. For several generations, from that which saw its premiere in 1988, it is part of its life. But this will not happen again.
And it is not that there are no artists with the talent of Albert Guinovart, Joan Lluís Bozzo and Xavier Bru de Sala, authors, respectively, of music, direction and libretto of the musical inspired by the work of Àngel Guimerà. No unredeemed producers such as Anna Rosa Cisquella and Miquel Periel. Exist. The time, however, is another. Today it is impossible and would be highly irregular, for example, that the Department of Presidency of the Generalitat will grant 600,000 euros to a private theater company to carry out anything similar to Tuesday. The aids of this figure go to equipment, never to cover a single project.
However, Dagoll Dagom assumed many risks in 1988. They were very daring in thinking that the love story between the Moorish Saïd and the Christian Blanca, at the end of which the two die, talkedly Romeu and Julieta, could be a resounding success. They came from Antavian (1985) y The mikado (1986) and everything made them anticipate that they would stick it. But not. With Night flower (1992) yes it happened. Even so, in 2004 they were able to overcome Tuesday In the TNC, another invaluable public aid, and in 2014 they tried again, again in the Victòria. At that time I remember perfectly Xavier Marcé, current councilor of culture of Barcelona, saying that the musical would never have to get off the billboard, which would have to be ours The opera ghostin force uninterrupted in London since 1986.
The company of Bozzo, Cisquella and Periel, simply and plainly, a genre that did not exist here were invented. And they had the best artists in the country, from Guinovart to Joan Vives and Joan Albert Amargós, by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán to Bru de Sala.
The contemporary equivalent would be the producer of Jordi Sellas, Nostromo Live, artistically led by àngel Llàcer. But either. Because their proposals, all in Spanish except the recent Marmot’s Daythey are musical in some ways anachronistic, Broadway successes and the West End of 30, 40 or 50 years ago, such as The producers o Singing in the rain. Dagoll Dagom was always brave, with his own product or, if he was adapted, totally of his time. And that’s why they followed them, in the 1990s, the musical Més Petit by Daniel Anglès, or Els Pirates Teatre, a decade later. They tried to be the heirs of Dagoll Dagom, but there was only room for a “great” company.
Today it is more complicated to raise a success like that, in addition, the competition is fierce. And producers are more cowardly. How do you explain, if not, Soulwho exhausted locations at the TNC at the beginning of the season, haven’t it returned yet? Dagoll Dagom walked its shows through Spain, which no company does today, not even the public of Madrid. The times have definitely changed.
This article was originally published in the supplement Notebook on July 13, 2025.