ATG Announces New Transatlantic Business Model; Aims to Import American Shows

According to Deadline.com, Ambassador Theatre Group, Britain's largest theatre chain, is in negotiations with American regional theaters to create a "Hollywood-style network."

Deadline.com spoke to Ambassador Theatre Group CEO Howard Panter, who hopes to embark on a new theatrical business model with this deal. States Deadline.com, "The idea is not just ship ATG hits such as A Little Night Music across the pond, but import successful American shows here. Traditionally, most theatre productions move between London and Broadway. Panter wants to widen that exchange to include regional US theatre hubs."

Beyond just bringing new work to transatlantic audiences, Deadline.com says that Panter hopes "It will also create more opportunities for playwrights to have their work seen in America - not just on Broadway."

To read the full Deadline.com article, click here.

Co-founded by Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire in 1992, ATG has a total of 38 venues across the UK. When the new Aylesbury Waterside Theatre Opens in October 2010, this total will stand at 39. ATG is also one of the country's foremost theatre producers and has been behind some of the most successful and innovative productions in Britain and internationally.

ATG's portfolio of West End theatres includes high profile and historic buildings such as the Apollo Victoria, Comedy, Donmar Warehouse, Duke of York's, Fortune, Lyceum, Phoenix, Piccadilly, Playhouse, Savoy, Trafalgar Studio 1 and Trafalgar Studio 2.

ATG's regional theatres include The Ambassadors Woking encompassing the New Victoria and Rhoda McGaw Theatres and the award-winning 6 screen cinema complex, Ambassador Cinemas; Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham; Theatre Royal Brighton; Bristol Hippodrome; Churchill Theatre Bromley; Edinburgh Playhouse; Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone; King's Theatre and Theatre Royal, Glasgow; Grimsby Auditorium; Liverpool Empire; Palace Theatre and Opera House, Manchester; Milton Keynes Theatre; New Theatre, Oxford; Richmond Theatre; Southport Theatre; Regent Theatre and Victoria Hall, Stoke-on-Trent; Sunderland Empire; Princess Theatre, Torquay; New Wimbledon Theatre and New Wimbledon Studio; Grand Opera House, York.

Current and recent ATG co-productions in London and internationally include The Misanthrope, West Side Story, Guys and Dolls, Exit the King, Sunset Boulevard, Fat Pig, The Lover/The Collection, Elling, Porgy and Bess, Sweeney Todd, Company and The Rocky Horror Show. ATG also has a subsidiary company Sonia Friedman Productions (SFP), whose current and recent productions include Legally Blonde, Jerusalem, Othello, La Cage Aux Folles, Arcadia, Boeing-Boeing, The Norman Conquests, The Seagull, No Man's Land and Rock 'n' Roll; and a family entertainment and pantomime company, First Family Entertainment.

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