Got sad news today. After 7 years of medical training, my good friend has been struck off after 1 minor indiscretion. He slept with 1 of his patients & now can no longer work in the job he loves. What a waste of time, training & money. A genuinely nice guy, and a brilliant vet..
My 94 year old dad just telephoned to say he’s just seen himself on the television, dancing at Trafalgar Square on VE day with a lady he didn’t know and then asked me if I thought she might still be around?
There we go, seventeen sold out performances, only one lost, all the incredible reviews but most importantly, we brought theatre back and audiences rushed back Willy Russell’s
@EducatingRitaUK
@minacktheatre
I need an assistant who wants eventually to be a theatre producer but before that there’s everything I did … long hours, drink pouring, shit days and laughs… If interested please send a letter about yourself and what shows you’ve loved to me at 12 skinner place london sw1w 8hh
For fucks sake...
@OfficialALW
is really trying to help move theatres reopening forward and to all those criticising I ask, what the hell are you doing about it?
A theatre producers job is to provide entertainment to as many people as possible & I know I’ve banged on about this before lockdown but please even more so now, can we keep theatre ticket prices down as this will only help make theatre more accessible & you know that it’s right
I feel very very very sad today as
@pandpsortof
has to close in the West End. Plan b & omicron greatly reduced audiences & the losses were untenable. I’m incredibly proud of the production, cast, company, creatives, glorious reviews & the 120 standing ovations
#wewillbeback
For those producers who have tried so hard to produce we were right to try and we must try again. Our job is to produce to entertain people and at the moment that’s more important than ever.
Two years ago today my mum died. She liked daffodils so each year I plant them in all the window boxes at home and the office so that they bloom about now
What if the theatres aren’t open at full capacity?
We still do it
What if it rains?
We still do it
What if people don’t come?
We still do it
What exactly are we doing?
We still do it
But why?
Our job is to entertain people
Sheridan Smith played 120 performances as Shirley Valentine where there was not one empty seat or standing position
The production recouped it’s costs and made a profit of 96.4%. Seats were priced fairly, everyone got a rise on recoupment and investors were happy
#transparency
Producers are often asked what they actually do, so let me give you an example, today I bought every role of cling film within 30 miles of the
@minacktheatre
to wrap 9000 books that make up the glorious set of
@EducatingRitaUK
to waterproof it
Just wrote to my 188 theatrical angels (investors) & sent them a cheque for their share of profit on
@EducatingRitaUK
at the
@minacktheatre
it’s not enough for dinner at the Wolseley it’s more KFC but hey it’s somethings & you tell me who else in the world is paying a dividend
I need to explain something very important. These seats on sale are not my seats. The production and no one connected to it earns anything from their sale. ATG takes it all. I would never sell theatre tickets at £180 each. It’s immoral. It creates elitism
@shirleyonstage
I am incredibly sad to say that
@pandpsortof
will have to close at the
@CriTheatre
on February 6th. Since plan b was introduced by the government audiences stopped coming to the West End and we can no longer sustain the enormous losses. Please come and see us before we close
Is anyone aware that social distancing was stopped in the Isle of Man? Therefore their theatre can open to full capacity & that will happen now with a local production of Calendar Girls & as soon as the borders open so will our production of Willy Russell’s
@EducatingRitaUK
I am over the mirror ball to tell you that I am producing the sensational Pride and Prejudice
#sortof
in London’s soon to be glittering West End at the Criterion Theatre from October 1 for an open ended run
@pandpsortof
@TronTheatre
#scottishtheatreatitsbest
The UK theatre/equity weekly touring allowance comes no where near the standard of living issues we have to face and so we will now henceforward pay £400 a week
I’m very excited to tell you I’m producing a new production for an open ended run in London’s glittering West End in November that I love so so much but can’t tell you more until tomorrow or my Press Rep the glorious
@AmandaMalpass
will kill me
#justwaittilyouseetheticketprices
The
@minacktheatre
sold a lot of tickets today, not bragging, just saying that’s a great sign for the future of theatre, if audiences want to see something they are going to come back
#optimism
This year Sheridan Smith played every one of the 120 performances as Willy Russell’s Shirley Valentine, every seat was sold, every standing position filled & at sensible prices so never having to discount & the production made profits for its investors
#vproud
What do you do when your guest star in The Play What I Wrote gets COVID at the last minute you ring the wonderful Sue Holderness our Marlene from Fools and Horses and she gets in her car drives to Birmingham and does it
#totalstar
Proud of my 95 year old dad…yesterday a lady telephoned him saying she was from his bank & needed to renew his household insurance. He explained his papers were upstairs & could she call back. He called the bank… they’d never heard of her. She rang back & he told her to sod off
Willy Russell’s Shirley Valentine starring Sheridan Smith has just broken the box office record at the Duke of Yorks Theatre opening tonight to a box office advance of over four million pounds
21 years ago daf & I met and have been together ever since when I say together I don't mean together together although god I've tried.
This is the official portrait released today to celebrate the occasion by the Palace Theatre Attercliffe courtesy of
@JohnSwannell
Well done to everyone watching and working on
@EducatingRitaUK
tonight at the
@minacktheatre
where the audience were soaked, the actors were soaked and the set was soaked but the show was performed in full and the audience stood and cheered and dripped
#theshowwillgoon
I cannot tell you the messages of support I have received for actually re establishing the policy of printing the full range of ticket prices on an advert
#knowwhatyouarepaying
17th November 1977, the first show I ever produced, Leek Grand Cinema, tickets £1, sold out in an hour, the audience howled, the Star came off stage at 12.20am and got paid £250 cash. Thank you Ken Dodd
Met with three different fellow commercial theatre producers today and they all felt we are fucked for the next two years and they may be right but I’m going to keep trying
The view just taken of the
@minacktheatre
by Adam our wonderful company manager of
@EducatingRitaUK
as we head to our last performance here tomorrow its been a triumph in so many ways and our team have loved it here but are definitely dreaming of a roof
I am delighted to announce that the tour of
@pandpsortof
has, despite its run being curtailed in London’s West End due to the pandemic, recouped its production costs and is making profits for my investors who I’d like to thank for their trust
@OlivierAwards
A producer said to me on the phone today “I don’t think I can do this anymore” I know those feelings. I know now of three successful producers who over the last year have called it a day
#wehavetokeeptrying
Tonight is the final performance of Calendar Girls....9 years on, of being on the stage somewhere and I doff my cap to John Baker whose untimely death inspired those wonderful ladies to do so much
41 years as a theatre producer. 84 Charing Cross Road. Bread. The Blues Brothers. Art. Equus. Brief Encounter. God of Carnage. The Play What I Wrote. Rebecca. Calendar Girls. Full Monty. Educating Rita. Pride and Prejudice Sort Of. Shirley Valentine… all made a profit