The theatre investor who didn’t know he was taking a risk might have made an appropriate subject for one of the late HM Bateman’s classic cartoons of ingenues cast among more worldly souls, individuals at once believable without being in the least commonplace.
Anyone armed with the most rudimentary knowledge of the business of theatre and entertainment cannot fail to have realised that chance is an essential component of commercial ventures of any sort. And far from being unwelcome, it is the exciting possibilities of this element which motivates so many novice theatre angels to part with their money. Like gambling, backing shows holds the promise of a return far in excess of that offered by more conventional forms of wealth creation.
There is also, as with gaming, another element beyond the acquisitive. For, almost certainly, statistical evidence would prove that if 100 people were given £1,000 each and told to invest it as they saw fit, then the majority of those who opted for high rather than medium risk would end up the worse off.
Greed alone does not explain the motive for depositing money on the race track, still less the stage. The truth is that theatre and horse racing both have an associated culture which the likes of the Premium Bonds and deposit accounts do not. Whatever the level of investment, romance rather than hard-headed calculation is often the most powerful catalyst. Otherwise, why not opt for a more surefire means of making money?
Were the entertainment market less regulated, then the industry would be awash with pyramid selling schemes to snare thousands of mini-angels for theatre projects which were nevertheless under-capitalised. That scenario would certainly find no favour amongst successful, large scale producers whose aim is to secure a small number of substantial and experienced backers rather than an army of rank amateurs. Their ideal - grown-up investors who have the knowledge to assess risk - have little need to be protected to the degree they have been under the terms of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
Some will say that the recent amendments to the legislation create one law for the rich and another for the rest. So they do but for once this works in the best interests of investors, both big and small, as well as commercial theatre itself.
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