Billy Elliot closing[in the UK]

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porschesrule
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Old Vic Productions

Post by porschesrule »

Given some of the financial management Old Vic Productions has demonstrated, this comes as no surprise:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mark ... ds-newsxml
kport
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Re: Old Vic Productions

Post by kport »

porschesrule wrote:Given some of the financial management Old Vic Productions has demonstrated, this comes as no surprise:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mark ... ds-newsxml
Management buybacks are not uncommon. Even US blue chip stocks have them from time to time. They are a sign of confidence in the company by the management and are often an opportunity for investors. The sum mentioned is a pittance compared to larger corporations.

Remember, this economy has provided a head wind for business since 2008. The US is coming out of it and the UK is entering it (or finally acknowledging it). Discretionary spending ( such as West End productions) are good barometers of the effects of a downturn. 2012 will be a tough year for West End/Broadway. My estimation is that the Summer Olympics will severely hit West End productions. London will become even more overpriced, foreign tourists will give it a miss, and Brits will be watching the Olympics on TV down at the local. I will wager this prediction: the US/CA Tour will outpace the West End profits for 2012.

Looking at the other productions being run by OVP, they are very good artistically, but will they engender anything like the profits that BETM has produced to date? Had OVP signed on Matilda, it would be entering a golden age. Matilda (and subsequent Roald Dahl musicals that will follow) will fill a marketing gap left with the finish of the Harry Potter franchise. Broadway is fighting over itself to secure Matilda.

I will look closely at OVP on Monday. I may well invest in it if the management themselves take a similar risk. Bob Diamond is no fool; he knows his stuff. If he is on board, then I will be, too.
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porschesrule
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Re: Old Vic Productions

Post by porschesrule »

Though it has a current date, this article from The Telegraph seems like it contains a lot of old news and, I believe, some misinformation (or at least mis-labeling). Not sure why it's popping up now. The article talks about Old Vic Productions' losses from the US based shows and specifically names the Chicago/Toronto tour as the main culprit, labeling it "the second tour". Of course we know that at one time the Chicago leg of that production was called the "first" tour -- not the second. However, there also were probably losses associated with the first version of the second Tour as well (before NETworks Presentations LLC took over management of it), which isn't mentioned in the article.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... loses.html
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Old Vic Productions

Post by andrewcraig »

The announcement of the closure was received just now on google.

Here is the link

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... loses.html


Losses rise at Old Vic Productions as Billy Elliot closes
The theatre production company chaired by former Barclays chief executive, Bob Diamond, has seen losses rise almost three-fold.
Old Vic Production posts loss due to closure of US tour of Billy Elliot.
Billy Elliot the Musical closed on Broadway after a three-year run.
James Quinn

By James Quinn

7:30AM BST 22 Jul 2012

CommentsComment

The theatre production company chaired by former Barclays chief executive, Bob Diamond, has seen losses rise almost three-fold following a string of disappointments in the US.

Old Vic Productions (OVP), which is a major partner in the Old Vic Theatre Company, generated increased losses as a result of the closure of Billy Elliot the Musical on Broadway after a three-year run.

The decision to close the show, despite initial box office success, came after OVP’s profit share for 2011 was £11,000, compared with £289,000 in 2010.

But the bulk of the losses were the result of a £1.2m write-off relating to the closure of the second Billy Elliot tour in North America, which started in Chicago and ended in Toronto. The second tour was a financial disaster, with an 8p in the pound return on investment received.

Accounts recently filed at Companies House show OVP made a loss before tax of £1.67m in the year to December 2011, against a loss of £630,423 in the prior year.
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Re: Billy Elliot closing[in the UK]

Post by muck912 »

The article does NOT say that Billy Elliot London is closing.
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Rich B
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Re: Billy Elliot closing[in the UK]

Post by Rich B »

This article was already posted in another thread. It's a new article but old news. It's referring to the Broadway production. There's nothing in the article referring to the UK production closing.
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Re: Billy Elliot closing[in the UK]

Post by kport »

I cannot find this on my online Telegraph. It came to me via a Google alert. I wonder whether any UK BETM forum members could confirm whether it appears in today's print Telegraph? I think it is an old article that Google alerts plucked from the past and posted under today's date (this has happened before). If so, it is not a new story, and a highly misleading (and damaging) headline!

I have fired off a blast to Andrew Gilligan to get this clarified.
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Re: Billy Elliot closing[in the UK]

Post by ERinVA »

I agree with the Rich B. This is about the Broadway production, not the UK one. As kport says, however, the article is in dire need of clarification.
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Old Vic Productions

Post by ERinVA »

To avoid having two threads on the same subject, I have merged the two threads, Billy Elliot Closing [in the UK], posted by andrewcraig on July 21, 2012, and Old Vic Productions, posted by porschesrule back in February 2012.
Ellen



"I don't want people who want to dance; I want people who have to dance.”
-George Balanchine 1904 -1983


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Re: Billy Elliot closing[in the UK]

Post by kport »

kport wrote:I cannot find this on my online Telegraph. It came to me via a Google alert. I wonder whether any UK BETM forum members could confirm whether it appears in today's print Telegraph? I think it is an old article that Google alerts plucked from the past and posted under today's date (this has happened before). If so, it is not a new story, and a highly misleading (and damaging) headline!

I have fired off a blast to Andrew Gilligan to get this clarified.
James Quinn's blog appears to be on the US website only; he is based in NY and comments on US/Wall Street finance only for the Telegraph. I examined all of his DT/ST blog entries and could not come up with this blog entry, which seems odd....in any event all of his blogs concern US, and not London, financial/corporate matters, and not anything to do with London, so I think this 'article' refers to past tense events in the US and has nothing to do with the West End production. In fact, since I cannot pull it up under his blog entries, and the news it contains is old hat, I am suspicious about the validity of whole thing.
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