Toni Racklin, Barbican Centre

Welcoming back its box office record-breaking production of My Neighbour Totoro, Racklin’s stint at the Barbican – begun in 1996 – continues with an unabated passion for big, spectacle-heavy productions from around the world. Its 2023 programme saw the venue welcome the Pulitzer prize winning A Strange Loop from Broadway as well as Complicité’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead and Headlong’s A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction, amid a season that also included work from Belgium, Canada, Hong Kong, Poland, South Africa, Spain and the US.

Rachel O’Riordan and Amy Belson, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre

The Lyric Hammersmith enjoyed a fine 2023, with strong leadership paving the way for such varied programming as Accidental Death of an Anarchist, the UK premiere of School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play, The Good Person of Szechwan and a revival of Yazmina Reza’s God of Carnage. Meanwhile, a new co-producing partnership with Frantic Assembly saw poet Lemn Sissay adapt Kafka’s Metamorphosis for the theatre. Across the 12 months, the Lyric welcomed more than 300,000 visitors at 75% capacity.

Tim Sheader and James Pidgeon, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

When he departs for the Donmar, Sheader will leave Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre a reinvented prospect; a confident producing theatre that hosts more than 140,000 people at its summer season each year. Its most recent offerings have included a superb revival of musical La Cage aux Folles, directed by Sheader; Carl Grose’s tongue-in-cheek Robin Hood; and Jennifer Tang's reimagined The Tempest, in a co-production with the Unicorn Theatre. Pidgeon remains at the venue – where he prepares to write a fresh chapter for the theatre alongside new partner Drew McOnie.

Chris Smyrnios, Southwark Playhouse

After two decades at Southwark Playhouse – working his way up the ranks from administrative assistant – Smyrnios has established it as a multi-venue operation and a key part of the Off-West End landscape. Its second site, Southwark Playhouse Elephant, launched last year, while its Borough venue also continued to host a full programme of work. Things show no sign of slowing down, with a third venue in London Bridge slated to open in 2025.

Michelle Terry and Stella Kanu, Shakespeare’s Globe

Kanu has hit the ground running since being made chief executive, lending her voice to campaigns including the Women in Theatre Lab. She and artistic director Terry have continued to position the Globe not as relic but conversation-driver, with the summer 2023 season curated around themes of the natural world and climate change. In the year of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio, Elle While returned to direct A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with Terry as Puck. Meanwhile, a production of Ibsen’s Ghosts flickered in the candlelight of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

The Stage 100 is intended to reflect the 100 most influential people working in theatre and the performing arts. It is considered from the point of view of The Stage, as a trade publication, and so focuses both on theatre as a business and an art form. Inclusion within the list and ranking is weighted towards impact over the past 12 months. We also aim to have a list that – as much as is possible and plausible – reflects the astonishing breadth of the theatre industry. However, the list also seeks to reflect how the theatre and performing arts industry is, not what it aims to be, or we would like it to be.