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How To Guides

by Peter Hepple

Peter Hepple is consultant editor of The Stage

1) Cruising is far from leisurely.

It is certainly not a long holiday with a bit of work attached. Staff work long hours, must be smiling and helpful at all times and are likely to be sharing smallish cabins. If you like time to yourself, it is not for you.

Be aware of the difference between cruise and entertainment staff. Cruise staff are not entertainers, though they may get the opportunity to entertain. They are like holiday centre staff or resort reps. Young people with performing arts training are a popular choice, which is why they are often recruited through The Stage.

2) Resident Companies.

Entertainers can be found in resident companies on most large vessels, contracted for about six months at a time, and comprising singers, dancers and speciality performers, such as comedians and illusionists. On the largest ships these can number 20 or more artists, who have to appear in several different productions, sometimes themed revues, sometimes cut-down versions of musicals and occasionally even plays.

The trend nowadays is to include fully-equipped theatres on cruise ships and the requirements are therefore exactly the same as for productions on land. Auditions are held, mostly in London, once or twice a year, not only by British companies but also by American and other overseas owners. Cruise ships are not liable to labour restrictions and some theatre companies are multinational, though British performers are often preferred for their enthusiasm and professionalism.

3) Agents and Bookers.

Many vessels also employ cabaret artists, sometimes incorporated into the existing productions but more often used in separate cabaret lounges in late-night spots. Here the contracts are of much shorter duration because passengers do not want to see the same acts several times during the longer cruises. Many entertainers are therefore employed for only part of a cruise and may have to do only one or two spots. Such bookings are termed ‘flyback’ contracts, meaning that the artists join the ship at one port and fly back from another a few days later.

Most agents claim to be looking for cruise performers, but it should be remembered that few shipping lines use sole bookers. All the main cruise lines have their own entertainment departments, though some have close relationships with certain agents. But in some respects the cruise industry, as the largest employer of light entertainment artists, is getting into the same buying and selling chaos that formerly afflicted club bookers and agents.

It is true that many of the production shows are contracted out to individual producers, many of them in the United States, and are not run on the same lines. But care should be taken in employing agents who say they can guarantee cruise work. It is those actually running the ships who have the final say, and there are too many stories these days of artists being sent home as unsuitable because an agent was not fully aware of the needs of a particular vessel or cruise.

4) Owners and Charterers.

It is also important to understand the difference between owners of ships and charterers. Owners like P&O, employ their own staff and organise their own cruise schedules. Charterers are holiday companies, such as Thomson, who contract to use vessels, often owned by overseas companies, for a fixed period of time and then arrange the cruise schedules.

Owners' cruise staff are used at the discretion of the Cruise Director, who is in overall charge of all the recreational facilities.

Charterers are basically tour operators; on part-charters, which are common on the larger ships, there may be several operators involved, usually overseas. The charterer's staff is therefore concerned only with looking after its own passengers.

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