Theatreshare will operate as a theatrical investment and production company, its main remit to develop and produce a range of new productions for London’s West End. To fund the venture, the company has gone for the rare approach, in West End terms at least, of inviting large numbers of small investors to buy in to the venture for a minimum stake of £2,500. The target is £2million.
The high-profile hook is the promise of a share in potential profits from ticket sales, theatre transfers and film and TV adaptations. The less appetising downside is made clear in smallprint on the company’s website - "this carries a high degree of risk and may result in the loss of the entire investment."
However, the blueprint for the new company would seem to mitigate against such an eventuality. Theatreshare will draw on the collective experience of a management team, board of directors and consultants, who between them have many years’ experience in West End theatre and who have been associated with some of the biggest hit shows of the last 20 years. Amongst the line up are Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Fry (in the hot seat as company chairman), and Nicola Horlick. The company has also signalled that this will be a highly commercial venture - eighty per cent of funds will go towards shows which demonstrate the best potential for making a profit. The ties to Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group are self evident in the exclusive arrangement with Really Useful Theatres, the largest theatre owner in the West End and the fact that Andre Ptaszynski, currently chief executive of Really Useful Theatres, will be Theatreshare’s managing director. The deal will place some of the best West End theatres at Theatreshare’s disposal.
The company already has a busy year planned: it will be involved in staging Lloyd Webber’s latest musical Bombay Dreams and will also have roles in both the London run of the hit Broadway show The Producers and the forthcoming stage adaptation of Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
For many, the initiative is timely: theatre’s fortunes haven’t exactly hung in the balance of late, but those involved know to take nothing for granted. The days of the long-running, bank-rolling musicals seem to be at an end. Even productions planned for relatively short runs haven’t always made it to the finishing post. A new momentum can only be good for the West End.
So if you’ve got a bit of loose change and you fancy a punt, now might be the time to dig deep.
