800 stories by "Alistair Smith"
What's in a name? The Olivier Awards used to be called the Society of West End Theatre Awards. It's worth remembering that
London mayor Sadiq Khan has sounded a welcome note on the false economy of cutting arts subjects in education. The creative industries
I find myself conflicted when it comes to the issue of banning food in theatres. It is irritating when someone rustles a
Not too long ago, it was fairly standard practice for councils to fund " and often run " their local receiving theatres.
Three apparently unrelated stories in this week's paper should give pause for thought. The first is news that Labour is launching an
One of the biggest problems with local arts cuts is that they are infectious. The news of cuts in Bath and Bristol
I spent Friday afternoon in the Grand Saloon of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane with about 450 like-minded souls, celebrating the best and brightest of
There is a quote from the late, great Laurence Olivier that we often use to help promote The Stage. It goes: "The
It comes as little surprise that Arts Council England is asking theatres to prepare for cuts, or standstill funding at best, in the
Once upon a time in a kingdom called Pantoland, there was a pantomime giant named Qdos Entertainment. Qdos was the undisputed King
This time last year, our front page read "Local cuts are 'main threat to theatre in 2016'." And so it has proved.
Writer and restaurant critic AA Gill's death reminded me of a scathing piece he wrote about the state of British theatre criticism
Outside theatre, one of the sectors I find most interesting is the restaurant trade. As it's another branch of the entertainment industry,
Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh are the twin titans of our industry. The pair dominated commercial theatre in the final third of
Here's the awkward truth about ticket touting: it only happens because producers are underpricing their tickets. If producers were offering tickets at
At the end of 2015, we asked leading theatre figures about their hopes and fears for 2016. Nobody foresaw our country's vote
You might not be aware, but next week is Captioning Awareness Week. This event is in its second year and is run
Ed Vaizey's speech at the Royal Society of Arts pulled few punches. It is very insightful, well worth watching in full via
Where next for Shakespeare's Globe? The Bankside venue has been one of British theatre's great success stories, but today faces a seriously
English theatre is in a pretty healthy state. That's the overriding theme to come out of the Arts Council's report into the
Look at copies of The Stage from the 1940s and 1950s and you don't have to search hard for evidence of a widespread
Sitting in the National Theatre foyer one Monday afternoon almost precisely three years ago, you might have been aware of a strange
This week's welcome news that a group of the UK's leading theatres will work with Parents in the Performing Arts to investigate
West End ticket prices are a thorny subject. Part of the reason for this is that there's not a lot of clear data
Earlier this year I was singing the praises of Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart for taking their production of No Man's Land
