So, Live Nation, the UK’s largest theatre operator, is to be sold off to the highest bidder.

Well, sort of.

Live Nation has kicked off the very long and drawn out process which could lead to a sale, by asking Goldman Sachs to see if anyone wants to buy its 17 UK venues and, if so, for what price.

The answer to the first of those two questions is undoubtedly yes. But it’s worth remembering that the answer to the second could very easily be ‘not as much as Live Nation wants’.

With that proviso, however, what would the sale mean for UK theatre, if it were to go ahead?

So, it looks like the arts world could be heading for yet another funding crisis.

Okay, so it’s unlikely to be quite on the scale of the 2007 Christmas funding debacle, which saw large parts of the sector rise up in united anger against some of Arts Council England’s funding decisions, but this could still be pretty worrying stuff.

To recap, ACE is modeling three scenarios in case it finds out from DCMS later this month, post-Budget, that the government is going to reclaim some of the money it had previously promised for 2010/11. If this happens, DCMS will most likely reclaim some of its grant to ACE and ACE, in turn, is going to have to reconsider some of the commitments it has made to the sector.

In the ‘worst case scenario’ that is being planned for, ACE (and therefore the arts world) loses £14 million - 3% of its total grant.

Now, it should be stressed that ACE does not know that it is going to have its grant cut, but, if we’re being realistic, it wouldn’t be preparing for cuts, if it didn’t think there was a good chance they were going to happen.

Should this come as a surprise?

Harper’s Bazaar (yes, that wasn’t a typo in the headline) has announced who it (and a jewelry company) believes are the 20 most powerful women in British theatre.

As someone who helps compile The Stage’s own power list - The Stage 100 - I’m only too aware of how subjective these kind of things can be.

But still, this is a very strange top 20 indeed. Any list which omits the two most powerful women in theatre must surely stretch its credibility somewhat.

Where are Nica Burns and Rosemary Squire?

Peter Pan is coming home to Kensington Gardens this summer in a new tented version of the perennial family favourite.

It has been a while is the offing (The Stage first revealed the plans back in 2007) but, in that time producers have assembled an impressive creative team - ex Almeida director Ben Harrison, a brand new stage adaptation by Tanya Ronder (which she promises will “strip the candy floss” from the story) and - perhaps most importantly designer William Dudley.

Dudley’s design looks to be central to the whole project and at a press launch yesterday he unveiled some intriguing images showing early explorations of a 360 projection concept which he has planned for the show.

So, Bristol Old Vic has found itself a new artistic director.

Tom Morris strikes me as a pretty fantastic choice. As a director he has a foot in both camps - large scale and small scale - and will, if anyone is ever going to be able to, bring together the disparate artistic movements in Bristol, where you have physical theatre companies, street artists and of course a more traditional vein.

His work on War Horse shows that he is able to harness the skills of what is traditionally small-scale theatre (puppetry) and turn it into a big (and soon to be commercial) crowd pleaser.

This is what Bristol needs. Someone who can harness the abundant and very specific skills on offer in the region, but still turn out theatre that large numbers of people want to come to see.

We must remember that the problems of the previous regime were very much rooted in their inability to attract sufficient audiences.

Not too long ago, Chichester Festival Theatre was a bit of a mess.

First, there was the financial crisis. Then, the arrival of the artistic triumvirate of Ruth Mackenzie, Martin Duncan and Stephen Pimlott, who managed to secure extra public funding, but programmed seasons which failed to appeal to large swathes of the local population. When they left in 2005, the phrase “poisoned chalice” was muttered whenever the issue of who might replace them was discussed.

Step forward Jonathan Church..

It looked like a near impossible job, but I don’t think it’s unfair to say that with the announcement of the venue’s 2009 season, the turnaround is now complete.

So, the nominations for the Oliviers have been announced and, as usual, there’s at least one big surprise omission.

This year it is Kenneth Branagh and Michael Grandage’s turn.

Despite being critically lauded for his perfomance in Ivanov (and picking up the Critics’ Circle Award last week), Branagh doesn’t even make the shortlist for the Oliviers.

And while the Donmar has managed to scoop 13 nominations, I think Grandage could probably deserve to feel a little aggrieved that he hasn’t got a nod for at least one of the productions that he has helmed - Ivanov, The Chalk Garden, Twelfth Night…

Maybe it was something they said…

The full nominations can be found here

Also, in case your interested, here’s a few observations from the nominations list, in no particular order.

In a bid to reach new audiences, Sadler’s Wells is spicing things up with the announcement of its first full off-site season.

The 12-performance line-up will include cross-medium ventures, the young and the avant garde, in seven venues across London.

Hofesh Shechter will present his show Choreographer’s Cut at Camden’s Roundhouse in February - a massive production featuring 16 dancers and 20 musicians that he promises will be more like a music gig - while the works of William Forsythe will feature in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, South London Gallery, Midland Goods Shed in St Pancras and even clubbing hotspot Fabric

Meanwhile, the Young Vic is to join forces with Sadler’s Wells to create Pictures from an Exhibition, the Clod Ensemble will take over Victorian warehouse the Village Underground in Shoreditch to present Under Glass, and a series of performances will be held at the London Coliseum.

Given the economic climate, it’s a gutsy plan. Even Sadler’s Wells chief executive and artistic director Alistair Spalding admitted just this week that the venture would be an expensive one. But, he also added that now was the best time to expand and diversify, and attract new audiences.

And he’s right - the off-site season is bound to reel in those who might not otherwise consider coming to Sadler’s Wells, whether it is because they think dance is not for them, or because a lot of people still find such buildings intimidating.

The season is pretty exciting and unconventional in terms of its line up, with its pendulums, helium balloons and multi-media installations. The venues - decidedly much hipper than the average dance venue - are likely to attract a young and trendy crowd, while the collaborative projects with some of the capital’s leading arts organisations will entice those interested in the visual arts, music and theatre.

But there is a question of sustainability here. What will the venue do to bring the audiences back?

Yes the season might be about introducing people to dance and Sadler’s Wells, but surely with a recession looming, you want to build an expanded audience who will return to spend their pennies (..ahem). Let’s not beat around the bush - this is a commercial venture after all.

Is this a flash in the pan, or an idea that will continue to grow both in frequency and geography (let’s not forgot about the regions here)? Or, will the trendy, young things of London be immediately wowed by Forsythe? Time will tell.

You could be forgiven for thinking that going to the theatre and going to the cinema are almost the same experience: in both audiences sit in a darkened room, silent, and watch people perform.

But this is not the case. Cinematic pleasure derives from close-ups, camera work, special effects. The theatre offers its liveness - you may not be able to see the tear falling from Romeo’s eye but if he coughs, laughs or forgets his lines, the audience will know about it. Perhaps it is true to say that the magic of cinema relies on its perfected form, whereas the magic of theatre is its vulnerability, the tense backstage reality that something could go hideously wrong at any moment.

With this in mind, the National Theatre’s announcement that it will broadcast four shows live to cinemas across the country begs the question will this theatrical-cinematic mongrel work and, even if it does, who will go to see it?

Last night marked the first night of the first big opening of 2009 - Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

Cameron Mackintosh’s revival of his 1994 Palladium production has already got a (reported) £15 million advance at the box office, so to a great extent it is pretty critic-proof, but what did they think of it, in any case?

This year, we have asked a number of people not involved with The Stage 100 - our annual list of the most influential figures in UK theatre - for their views on our rankings. Here are the views of The Stage’s backstage co-editor and former TMA president AK Bennett-Hunter. Please add your own views below.

If you need to remind yourself of the full list, you can find it here.

This year, we have asked a number of people not involved with The Stage 100 - our annual list of the most influential figures in UK theatre - for their views on our rankings. First up is regular columnist and theatre producer Richard Jordan. Please add your own views below.

If you need to remind yourself of the full list, you can find it here.

Tomorrow sees the publication of the Stage 100, our annual list of the most influential people in Theatreland.

So, who is top? Well, like last year it was something of a two-horse race.

Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter has died, aged 78.

He passed away on Christmas Eve, following a long battle with cancer.

Pinter was undoubtedly one of the greats of UK theatre, his plays included titles such as The Homecoming, The Birthday Party and The Caretaker. He was also a well-regarded poet and actor.

His final stage appearance was in Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett - one of the big influences on Pinter’s own writing - at the Royal Court in 2006. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2005.

A full obituary will appear in due course on this website and in a future edition of The Stage.

Over the last decade, Andrew Lloyd Webber has been the most influential figure in UK theatre. We at The Stage have always suspected that this might be the case, but now we have proved it in a semi-empirical fashion.

We totted up the results from our last ten Stage 100s (and for those of you who are unfamiliar with this, it’s our annual list of the movers and shakers in theatreland) whereby if you came top you got 20 points and if you came 20th, you received one point.

We then added these up and produced a league table - the Premier League of theatre, if you like. And it looks like this: