Around Town

This week, arguably the world’s biggest rap superstar hits London for the first time since his death ten years ago. Tupac ‘2Pac’ Shakur isn’t going to let a little thing like having been mown down in a hail of gunfire a decade ago keep him from his fans – hell no. After all, this is the man who has released more albums since his death than he did while he was alive. Luckily, though, rather than some gruesome reanimated zombie rocking the big L, Tupac is appearing only in waxwork form at Madame Tussaud’s. The Tupac mannequin is on loan from Tussauds’ sister attraction in Las Vegas, ironically enough the city where Tupac first met his maker. Feature continues

Tupac’s appearance in London is part of a wider effort at Tussaud’s to keep one of London’s oldest attractions relevant to a new generation of visitors more used to big-screen electro-thrills. The Tussaud’s team are aware of the competition they face from the new forms of entertainment that have evolved since its inception, but ‘we can keep up in different ways,’ says PR director Ben Lovett. ‘If we know there’s a big film coming up next year, for example, we can work ahead on it. With ‘Pirates Of The Carribean’, we worked with Disney from the onset on that, when the film was still shooting. So we had the exhibit open on the same day as the film; it keeps things very current.’

Tussaud’s has had to keep up with the times in other, more obvious ways, and the gallery is now as famous for its numerous interactive exhibits as its regular dummies. The talking Kylies, strokable Brad Pitts and whingeing Simon Cowells are partly feats of sculpture, but mostly masterstrokes of marketing, getting the Tussaud’s name into the papers on a regular basis and keeping the attraction fresh in the national (and international) consciousness. Despite these advances in waxwork technology, Lovett is adamant that the most important difference in today’s Tussaud’s is the approachability of the figurines.

‘The most important thing is that there’s no velvet rope surrounding the figures any more – you can get up close and put your arms around them for a photo opportunity. It’s important: people can compare how tall they are next to Naomi Campbell.’ This, says Lovett is the key to Tussaud’s success – giving people what they want. The figures selected for immortalisation are usually suggested by visitors, with opinions solicited through an array of subtle information-gathering techniques.