The top spot on this year’s The Stage 100 list of the most powerful people in British Theatre once again goes to ATG’s Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire.
- Broadway producers Thomas Schumacher and Scott Rudin make the list for the first time
- Other new entries include Gregory Doran and Catherine Mallyon at the RSC, Sam Mendes and Caro Newling at Neal Street Productions, producer Michael McCabe and director Jamie Lloyd
- Andrew Lloyd Webber rises from 6th to 3rd place. Sonia Friedman jumps from 11th to 5th.
- Nica Burns at Nimax holds her place at 8th.
Husband and wife theatre owners and producers Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire have topped The Stage 100 annual power list for the fifth consecutive year. The joint chief executives of Ambassador Theatre Group have grown their business significantly over the last few years and now own 39 theatres in the UK plus their first international venue, the Foxwoods Theatre on Broadway.
ATG was bought in October 2013 by American private equity firm Providence in a deal worth over £350m. In December, ATG took over complete control of the Savoy and Playhouse theatres in December, buying out The Tulbart Group and the Tulchin family respectively, and bought theatre ticketing agency The Ticket Machine Group.
West End Theatres in the ATG portfolio include the Apollo Victoria, Savoy, Duke of York’s and Donmar Warehouse.
At number 2 in the list is National Theatre director Nicholas Hytner and executive director Nick Starr who stand down from the Southbank venue in 2015, and at number 3 is Andrew Lloyd Webber, who topped the list six years running and this year enjoys a climb from 6th to 3rd place.
The Top 10 list is dominated by people who both own theatres and produce shows, including ATG, Lloyd Webber, Cameron Mackintosh and Nick Allott, and Nimax’s Nica Burns and Max Weitzenhoffer.
Producers also feature heavily in the Top 20, with Sonia Friedman, Michael Grandage and James Bierman, Bill Kenwright, Sam Mendes and Caro Newling all appearing. Wicked producer Michael McCabe makes the list for the first time, along with Disney’s Thomas Schumacher and Hollywood film producer Scott Rudin, who produces The Book of Mormon.
2014 STAGE 100 – TOP 20
1. Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire (theatre owners and producers, Ambassador Theatre Group)
2. Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr (director and executive director at the National Theatre)
3. Andrew Lloyd Webber (composer, producer and theatre owner at Really Useful Group)
4. Cameron Mackintosh and Nick Allott (producers and theatre owners, Cameron Mackintosh Ltd)
5. Sonia Friedman (producer, Sonia Friedman Productions)
6. Michael Grandage and James Bierman (director and producer, Michael Grandage Company)
7. Bill Kenwright (producer, Bill Kenwright Productions)
8. Nica Burns and Max Weitzenhoffer (theatre owners and producers, Nimax Theatres)
9. Gregory Doran and Catherine Mallyon (artistic director and executive director, Royal Shakespeare Company)
10. Dominic Dromgoole and Neil Constable (artistic director and chief executive, Shakespeare’s Globe)
11. Daniel Evans and Dan Bates (artistic director and chief executive, Sheffield Theatres)
12. Nick Thomas (founder and chairman, Qdos Entertainment)
13. Thomas Schumacher (producer, Disney Theatrical Group)
14. Scott Rudin (producer)
15. Jonathan Church and Alan Finch (artistic director and executive director, Chichester Festival Theatre)
16. David Lan (artistic director, Young Vic Theatre)
17. Josie Rourke and Kate Pakenham (artistic director and executive producer, Donmar Warehouse)
18. Sam Mendes and Caro Newling (director and producer, Neal Street Productions)
19. Michael McCabe (producer)
20. Jamie Lloyd (director)
2014 STAGE 100 – 21 to 100
Other theatre practitioners in the wider Top 100 list include:
Actors: Newcomer of the year Cush Jumbo (A Doll’s House at the Royal Exchange Manchester, Josephine and I at the Bush); Rory Kinnear (Iago in Othello at the National); Adrian Lester (Othello at the National); Lesley Manville (Ghosts, currently at the Trafalgar Studios); James McAvoy (Macbeth at the Trafalgar Studios); Simon Russell-Beale (King Lear at the National Theatre this month); Daniel Radcliffe (The Cripple of Inishmaan); Sheridan Smith (Michael Grandage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream); Scarlett Strallen (Singin’ in the Rain, A Chorus Line, Candide); Ben Whishaw (Mojo at the Duke of York’s); Matt Smith (currently playing Patrick Bateman in American Psycho at the Almeida); Helen Mirren (The Audience); Lenny Henry (Fences); Chiwetel Ejiofor (A Season in the Congo at the Young Vic); Henry Goodman (The Winslow Boy at the Old Vic, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the Duchess).
London theatre practitioners: Almeida’s former director Michael Attenborough and current director Rupert Goold; David Babani at the Menier Chocolate Factory; Vicky Featherstone at the Royal Court; Edward Hall at Hampstead Theatre; Kerry Michael at the Theatre Royal Stratford East; Purni Morell at the Unicorn; Toni Racklin at the Barbican; Indhu Rubasingham at the Tricycle; Kevin Spacey and Sally Greene at the Old Vic; Adam Spreadbury-Meyer at the King’s Head; and Madani Younis at the Bush Theatre.
Producers: SOLT’s Julian Bird for his Olivier Awards and UK Theatre Awards producing; Barbara Broccoli for shows including Strangers on a Train; Mamma Mia! producer Judy Craymer; Mark Goucher, producer of A Chorus Line and current hit Jeeves and Wooster; Let It Be and forthcoming Wind in the Willows producer Jamie Hendry; The Bodyguard producer David Ian; We Will Rock You producer Phil McIntyre; Stage Entertainment’s Rebecca Quigley who is currently working on I Can’t Sing! The X Factor Musical; producers and general managers Nick Salmon, Matthew Byam Shaw and Nia Janis who are producing the Donmar’s forthcoming West End run of The Weir and enjoyed commercial success last year with Helen Mirren in The Audience; The 39 Steps and Ghost Stories producer Edward Snape; and Top Hat producer (and star of Channel 4’s The Sound of Musicals!!) Kenny Wax.
Directors: Carrie Cracknell, director of 2013 hit A Doll’s House and forthcoming Royal Court play Birdland; Billy Elliot and The Audience director Stephen Daldry; Howard Davies, director of the National’s recent Children of the Sun; War Horse, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and The Light Princess director Marianne Elliott; Richard Eyre, who has had a bumper 2013 with The Pajama Game in Chichester and Ghosts at the Almeida – both transferring to the West End and Lloyd Webber’s new musical Stephen Ward; Maria Friedman, director of Merrily We Roll Along; Jeremy Herrin, new director of Headlong, with recent work including Another Country at Chichester and This House at the National and forthcoming Wolf Hall for the RSC; Mamma Mia! director Phyllida Lloyd; UK Theatre Awards best director winner Blanche McIntyre; and Mojo director Ian Rickson.
Writer and composers: Tori Amos, composer of The Light Princess at the National Theatre; prolific playwright Alan Ayckbourn; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s David Greig; Lucy Kirkwood, writer of the biggest drama of 2013, Chimerica; Conor McPherson, whose The Weir transfers from the Donmar to the West End this month; Peter Morgan, writer of The Audience; Mike Poulton, adapter of Fortune’s Fool by Ivan Turgenev at the Old Vic and forthcoming stage adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall novels for the RSC; Simon Stephens, adapter of A Doll’s House and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and writer of forthcoming new play Birdland at the Royal Court.
Theatre designers: Felix Barrett (Punchdrunk’s The Drowned Man); Bob Crowley (The Audience, Once), Soutra Gilmour (The Commitments, From Here to Eternity, Urinetown); Christopher Oram (Wolf Hall/Bring Up the Bodies for the RSC).
Regional Theatre practitioners: Gemma Bodinetz at the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse; James Brining at the West Yorkshire Playhouse; Sarah Frankcom and Greg Hersov at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre; James Grieve and George Perrin at The Paines Plough; Paul Kerryson at the Curve in Leicester; John E McGrath at the National Theatre Wales; Danny Moar and Laurence Boswell at the Theatre Royal Bath; Tom Morris at the Bristol Old Vic; Alex Poots at the Manchester International Festival; Laurie Sansom at Northampton’s Royal and Derngate Theatre; Roxana Silbert at the Birmingham Rep; Rachel Tackley at English Touring Theatre; David Thacker at the Bolton Octagon; and Adrian Vinken and Simon Stokes at the Theatre Royal Plymouth.
LINKS
The Stage 100 – official website
Rosemary Squire – Interview
Richard Eyre – Interview
