Matt Trueman laments the National Theatre’s apparent willingness to stage a musical version of Pinocchio, saying it should be investing in risky art, not safe bets.
Remember those heady days of 2010, before the cuts kicked in, when we spent our days coming up with arguments for funding the arts? All the cool kids were doing it: making up Churchill quotations and shouting about Danny Boyle's youth. Back then, you could call Jeremy Hunt a vagina on Radio 4 as long as you spluttered a bit afterwards and everyone fancied Sam West because he stood up in Hyde Park and demanded ballet for everybody. RIGHT ON, WESTY, RIGHT ON.
One argument in particular caught on: the economic case. "For every pound spent on the arts," we'd all parrot smugly, "the government gets, like, a gazillion back in taxes and stuff." The real ratio varied: some said one to two, others one to four. It didn't really matter. Look at War Horse, we screamed. Nobody thought that would work and, shazaam, £11 million profits in four years – a lot more now, another four years on. It's not subsidy. It's investment. The argument was so successful that Maria Miller, Hunt's successor at the DCMS picked it up as policy.
I thought back to that argument on Friday morning, when the Daily Mail revealed that the National Theatre is in advanced talks with Disney Theatricals about... Keep reading on What's On Stage
Remember those heady days of 2010, before the cuts kicked in, when we spent our days coming up with arguments for funding the arts? All the cool kids were doing it: making up Churchill quotations and shouting about Danny Boyle's youth. Back then, you could call Jeremy Hunt a vagina on Radio 4 as long as you spluttered a bit afterwards and everyone fancied Sam West because he stood up in Hyde Park and demanded ballet for everybody. RIGHT ON, WESTY, RIGHT ON.
One argument in particular caught on: the economic case. "For every pound spent on the arts," we'd all parrot smugly, "the government gets, like, a gazillion back in taxes and stuff." The real ratio varied: some said one to two, others one to four. It didn't really matter. Look at War Horse, we screamed. Nobody thought that would work and, shazaam, £11 million profits in four years – a lot more now, another four years on. It's not subsidy. It's investment. The argument was so successful that Maria Miller, Hunt's successor at the DCMS picked it up as policy.
I thought back to that argument on Friday morning, when the Daily Mail revealed that the National Theatre is in advanced talks with Disney Theatricals about... Keep reading on What's On Stage