The Stage

Irish Arts Council calls on government to follow Broadway model

Published Tuesday 25 May 2010 at 10:01 by Anthony Garvey

Irish Arts Council chair Pat Moylan has called on government to copy the example of Broadway as a means of creating jobs and promoting economic recovery.

She told a parliamentary committee discussing the Irish unemployment crisis that Broadway supports 44,000 local jobs and contributes $5.1bn a year to the New York economy. “I am not saying that Dublin should seek to recreate Broadway to scale,” she explained. “Instead, we should be taking what we can from this model and applying it to maximum economic advantage.”

That meant recognising the potential for employment that exists in theatre and supporting its development through investment. Tourism would be an immediate beneficiary from following the Broadway model, she said. Some 63% of all Broadway tickets were bought by tourists and many people regarded seeing a show on Broadway as “an integral part of a New York visit”.

Marketing and promotion of cultural offerings played a role in that, and could be a major tourism driver. “I would like to see our culture develop to the point where a visit to the theatre was part and parcel of a visit to Dublin, whatever the weather,” she told the committee.

“There is an opportunity for Ireland to develop our theatre offering significantly. “We have the talent, the writers and the ambition. What we need is the will to make it happen.”

John McColgan, one of the architects of Riverdance , who also testified, said that over the years the show had provided employment for around 900, from dancers to drummers and from stage managers to masseuses. The show had been “a

game-changer”, he claimed, as previously there had be no such thing as a professional Irish dancer and Irish dance had not been considered a real art form.

Now it was recognised, both at home and internationally, alongside Russian, flamenco, and African-American dancing.