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Arts Council England, the national development agency for culture, has announced over £2 million in repayable grants for eight dance and theatre producers.

The grants include touring productions for the first time.

Touring productions to get grants include Fiddler on the Roof, which enjoyed a successful, award-winning season at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre last summer, and is coming to the Barbican Theatre this summer from 24 May to 19 July 2025.

Fiddler on the Roof is then touring to Bromley, Leeds, Belfast, Norwich, Nottingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, High Wycombe, Liverpool, Southend-on-Sea, Dublin, Manchester, Eastbourne, Canterbury, Cardiff, Sunderland, and Birmingham.

The grant also includes the forthcoming UK tour of Top Hat, in a major new production at Chichester Festival Theatre this summer directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall. The show runs in Chichester from 14 July, and then Top Hat tours to Woking, Milton Keynes, Edinburgh, Nottingham, London Wimbledon, Canterbury, Liverpool, Cardiff, Sunderland, and Manchester.

The Top Hat tour is produced by Kenny Wax Productions and Jonathan Church Theatre Productions.

Other shows include Dear England, the National Theatre and JAS Theatricals’ production of James Graham’s Olivier Award-winning play, which is in its final week at the National Theatre, and then tours to Salford, Plymouth, Nottingham, Canterbury, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle, Chichester, Southampton, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Norwich, Woking, Bradford, London Wimbledon, Liverpool, and Birmingham.

Thanks to this pilot Incentivising Touring scheme, the productions will tour all nine English regions, every UK nation, and internationally, to a projected audience of 1 million people across 55 venues.

Additional producers receiving repayable grants for tour titles still to be announced are dance company Rambert; Witness for the Prosecution producer Eleanor Lloyd Productions; Emma Rice’s Wise Children; Shirley Valentine producer David Pugh, who is about to co-produce The Constant Wife at the RSC starring Rose Leslie; and Melting Pot, the new name for Simon Friend Entertainment, whose shows include new Oasis vs. Blur comedy drama The Battle.

Launched in November 2024, the Arts Council scheme reduces the financial risk on touring productions, giving boards and investors increased confidence and incentive to support tours, and helping to attract further investment and give venues greater programming choice.

Additionally, Arts Council England has commissioned a major study of the touring of theatre, dance, music and combined arts activities to venues presenting work on indoor stages to provide deep insight into the current touring landscape. The findings will be published later this year.

Round Two of the Incentivising Touring scheme will launch in July 2025.

Arts Minister Sir Chris Bryant said: “We are determined to ensure that arts and culture are no longer the preserve of a privileged few – and that means popular productions should be available to people close to home in all parts of the country. I applaud the Arts Council for helping to get iconic theatre and dance productions onto stages up and down the country, which will also give a much needed boost to local economies.”

Darren Henley, Chief Executive, Arts Council England, said: “We want more people to be able to access excellent performances wherever they live. Our new investment means more touring across England and beyond, not only delivering for audiences, but positively benefitting local economies too. We’re continuing to make the case for further investment in the arts, so we can continue to support brilliant, high-impact initiatives like this.”

Hannah Lake, Director of Touring, Arts Council England, said: “We’re thrilled to be announcing the first recipients of this pilot scheme, designed to reduce the risk for producers who wish to tour larger scale work where profitability is expected but not guaranteed. We are already hearing how producers are using the scheme to evolve business models and build resilience for the future. This has been a shared endeavour and I am incredibly grateful to the many who consulted on the scheme, in particular the external working group and external advisors for their advice and unwavering support which has got us to where we are today.”

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Main photo: Fiddler on the Roof at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. Photo by Marc Brenner

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