Theatre

We continue to be regularly involved in some of the most innovative and genre-defying theatre deals with our clients working at the highest levels in the UK, US and internationally, across theatre, musical theatre, immersive theatre, ballet, opera, dance and circus. Our clients include producers, theatre owners, not-for-profit producing companies, venues, drama schools, industry bodies, investors, agents, creative talent and high-profile rights-holders.

Our international theatre work continues to grow and we have advised on productions in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the Republic of Ireland, the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Japan. We are regularly instructed by major Hollywood Studios on their theatre activities, and have also worked with a major global record label.

We have become market leaders in assisting with theatre tax relief. We have worked with the two leading trade associations and their members, and are regularly consulted by HMRC. In recent years we have been instrumental in the establishment of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Theatre, founded to support parliamentarians’ understanding of the industry and to promote performing arts at both a national and local level.

We are proud to support the charity Stage One, regularly providing pro bono advice to theatre producers at the start of their careers.

Our lawyers also frequently provide insight on theatre-related issues in reputable publications including The Stage, The Financial Times, The Sunday Times and Bloomberg.

Other areas on which we advise include:

• Development: acquiring underlying rights for productions, including books, films and other sources, commissioning agreements with writers and composers and copyright issues
• Production arrangements: assisting with co-productions, creative team arrangements with directors, choreographers and designers
• Theatre tax credit: structuring arrangements to qualify for the tax credit
• Production finance: advice on structuring and promoting investment
• Production licensing: the overseas licensing of successful productions
• Transfers between the West End, Broadway and internationally, including finance, tax and structuring issues
• Not-for-profit: advice on commercial exploitation of not-for-profit sector productions and other arrangements between commercial and not-for-profit producers
• Cross-sector exploitation: advice on exploitation of successful productions across other industry sectors such as film and television, including live or “as-live” streaming of performances