Top theatre takes centre stage with £150m deal

Published on Tuesday 3 November 2009 20:34

ONE of Scotland's best-known performing arts venues has been taken over as part of a huge shake-up of the theatre scene in Britain.

The Edinburgh Playhouse, which regularly hosts big-name Scottish premieres of West End productions, has become part of the Ambassador Theatre Group.

The 80-year-old Playhouse, which started life as a cinema, had been owned by the American entertainment giant Live Nation. However, it yesterday completed the sale of its 17 theatres across the UK to ATG, which has now become the country's biggest theatre operator, with 39 venues worth about 150 million.

Other theatres snapped up include the Liverpool Empire, Bristol Hippodrome, Birmingham's Alexandra Theatre and the Lyceum and Apollo Victoria, in London.

The Playhouse has attracted a host of major musicals over the past ten years, including Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, and Riverdance. The 3,000-seat theatre is also a major venue on the pop and rock circuit.

Live Nation has said it wants to concentrate on its "core business" of producing, marketing and selling live concerts.

Former BBC director-general Greg Dyke, the new executive chairman of ATG, said: "I've known the group for many years and seen it grow from its early years in Woking to become one of the biggest theatre operators in the UK."