I have previously reported in a Stage news feature how frequent the turn-over in West End theatres is, and I’m not referring to what’s on their stages but rather who actually owns the bricks and mortar that the stages are housed within. At least three-quarters of our 40 West End theatres have changed owners in the last seven years alone; and the yesterday came the news that the Savoy has now been purchased by ATG, in partnership with the Tulbart Group (brothers Ted and Norman Tulchin, whose Playhouse Theatre ATG also already manage on their behalf, and Robert Bartner), therefore bringing their stock of West End houses that they are now responsible for programming to ten.
Meanwhile, having already disposed of four playhouses to Nimax (the new outfit set up by American producer Max Weitzenhoffer and Nica Burns), the fat lady may not yet have finished singing at the Really Useful Company as another fat cat lines up to contemplate swallowing her: according to a report in The Times on Monday, BBC Chairman Michael Grade is considering a return to the family business of theatre ownership that his uncle Lord Delfont did (who later partnered with Cameron Mackintosh to form Delfont-Mackintosh) by bidding for the eight remaining theatres that Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Company jointly owns with Bridgepoint, as part of a package that is also seeing Grade bidding (with theatrical agent Michael Linnit) to purchase the intellectual property rights in the composer’s work.
