Ellie Keel Productions

Ellie Keel has said she had three mantras in her mind throughout 2021: keep going, embrace change and lead well. It’s fair to say she’s done all three. Through her company, Ellie Keel Productions, she has commissioned, developed and produced shows prioritising female-led and LGBT+ work, creating more than 1,000 minutes of audio content between January and April.

In July, when live and in-person performance was possible again, double bill Hotter and Fitter reopened Soho Theatre’s main house, playing to almost 2,000 people. The shows made a loss, but Keel was keen to be at the forefront of theatres reopening and to make sure audiences were back in theatres, and creatives back in jobs. The emerging producer’s projects have directly employed more than 130 people.

In addition, she also raised £15,000 to commission and develop three new plays, and secured a Stage One bursary, while mentoring younger producers herself.

As the founder director of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting, she led the organisation as it developed a production arm, designed to encompass live shows, live and recorded streaming, and audio plays. In 2021, the prize received more than 800 applications, with Keel committing to read a quarter of them herself. One of the prize’s two inaugural winners, Amy Trigg’s Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me, reopened London’s Kiln Theatre days after lockdown lifted and played to more than 2,000 people live, with thousands more watching the live stream

Three staged readings of the other first-prize winner, You Bury Me by Ahlam, were held at the Edinburgh International Festival, and the play will now have a full production in 2023.

Michael Harrison Entertainment

As for so many, last year ended in disappointment for Harrison, when his production of Pantoland at the Palladium was forced to close just days into its run because of new Covid restrictions. Unperturbed, the producer kept up momentum in 2021, with a vast array of shows providing casts and crew with work across the country.

Despite delays to the government’s roadmap for reopening the country – which looked likely to threaten touring productions – Harrison persevered with renewed vigour, bringing Bedknobs and Broomsticks to theatres around the UK, later followed by the premiere of The Drifters Girl in Newcastle, ahead of its transfer to the West End. Notably, for that show, Harrison credited the five lead cast members as co-creators on the project, meaning they will share in royalties.

In addition, he produced the summer run of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Palladium, itself knocked back because of Covid isolation rules. But Harrison ensured that when it could open it did so with a bang, bringing Alexandra Burke into the role of the Narrator, with Linzi Hateley as the alternate, an inspired casting choice for those who saw Hateley in the show 30 years ago. It was the shot of joy audiences needed after a bleak start to the year.

In 2021, Harrison also concluded a deal under which he became chief executive of Crossroads Pantomimes, following the sale of Qdos Pantomimes to global production company Crossroads Live. He oversaw 29 pantos around the UK and has much more up his sleeve for 2022, including a national tour of Singin’ in the Rain.

David Pugh Productions

Two shows have earned Pugh his nomination for producer of the year. The first is Educating Rita, which toured extensively in 2021 after Pugh originally opened it at the Minack Theatre in Cornwall in the summer of 2020, when venues were still in disarray. The production sold out the Minack within two weeks, so Pugh took the show on tour this year, bringing it to venues around the country when the touring system was still fragile, with venues unsure of where content would come from.

While many producers were unable – or unwilling – to take a risk, Pugh did, taking Educating Rita, starring Stephen Tompkinson, all over the country. As one industry colleague noted of Pugh, it was an “indicator of David’s determination to keep as many theatres as possible open and programmed throughout the pandemic”.

But it was the second show – a comedy that orginated in Glasgow – that would earn Pugh the most plaudits in 2021. He ended the year by bringing Pride and Prejudice (*Sort Of) to the Criterion Theatre in the West End, where it arrived following an extensive regional tour. Bringing it to London, he made a decision to stick with the original cast rather than opt for star names, showing there is still a path for emerging talent from around the UK to break into the West End.

The show opened at the Criterion to strong reviews, with tickets at commendably affordable prices – top-price seats are £59.50 – to entice audiences back to Theatreland at a time when confidence among theatregoers had been hit.

Colleagues from around the country have praised his tenacity and boldness in keeping theatre going in the face of adversity through the pandemic. He has not played it safe when many others have over the past year, and always put the art form first