The Stage

Blackpool Grand to be National Theatre of Variety

Published Tuesday 8 March 2005 at 14:35 by Jeremy Austin

Blackpool Grand is to become the National Theatre of Variety in 2006, in time for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Variety Artistes’ Federation and 50 years since the formation of the Manchester and District Variety Branch.

In a deal between the theatre and Equity, the venue will announce its first programme in 2006 and it is hoped it will house a centre of excellence that will include training, a conference programme, a festival for the best in popular entertainment and an archive.

Bunny Lewis, chair of the Variety Advisory Committee, which was formed within Equity out of the old VAF, welcomed the news. He said rather than celebrating the past, he hoped it would be about the future of variety, with young people being given a chance to perform in a venue that was considered to be the pinnacle in light entertainment.

Said Lewis: “We will now go to Arts Council England and it depends on what they come up with money-wise as to what we will be able to do. But I am over the moon about it.”

The initial impetus for the creation of a National Theatre of Variety came from Manchester and District Variety Branch chair Geremy Phillips, who told Equity’s Annual Representative Conference in 1999 that there was a need for such a place. He said that while the UK had centres of excellence for essentially foreign art forms such as opera and ballet, variety was a home-grown art that had no venue celebrating it.

A task force consisting of assistant general secretary (theatre and variety) Christine Payne, variety organiser Mike Day, Yvonne Joseph and Brenda Marsh was formed to locate a venue that could fulfil the needs of the plan. Blackpool Grand was eventually approached.

Said Joseph: “This is the indigenous culture of our country but most performers work abroad. They are frustrated because they want to do it at home. The National Theatre of Variety should be a place to see talent. The big problem now is that when an artist discovers they have talent or they study for the talent, where do they go to see the dancers or the singers?”

Further details of the theatre’s policy will be developed by Equity and the recently appointed Grand general manager Paul Iles. Chairman of Blackpool Grand Theatre Trust David Coupe added: “We are delighted that Blackpool’s unique contribution to the world of variety has been recognised in this way. The Grand Theatre has a long history of promoting glamorous variety stars and the recent refurbishment of this Frank Matcham Grade II* listed theatre offers the ideal setting for delivering the National Theatre of Variety.”