2 Nica Burns, Nimax Theatres and @sohoplace

Ranking in 2023: 3

Theatre owner and producer Nica Burns has been a genuine force for positive, even radical, change in the West End in 2023.

Her newest venue, @sohoplace, enjoyed its first full year of operation and impressed with Theatreland’s most diverse line-up of new work and some of its cheapest tickets (currently priced between £20 and £75). The Financial Times described it as “a West End theatre with inclusivity at its heart”. It is hard to disagree.

Following on from its first in-house show in 2022 – Josie Rourke’s fresh staging of As You Like It, featuring Rose Ayling-Ellis performing using a hybrid of signing forms – the 2023 programming at this 600-seat, new-build theatre continued to break down barriers. In its short existence, it has already shown itself to be a genuine pioneer of access both on and off stage.

Its current show, The Little Big Things, which tells the story of a promising young rugby player paralysed in a teenage accident, features performer Ed Larkin, the first wheelchair-user to lead a West End musical.

Such has been the show’s success, it has extended into March this year, when it will be followed by the West End transfer of The Stage Debut Award-winning Red Pitch, giving playwright Tyrell Williams his West End debut.

Other highlights of the 2023 programme included another ambitious new production, the stage version of Brokeback Mountain, and Medea, starring Sophie Okonedo and Ben Daniels. But @sohoplace is not the only venue where Burns has specialised in creating and hosting work that is both inclusive and exciting.

Her existing portfolio of six historic West End playhouses – which she co-owns with Max Weitzenhoffer – also got in on the act, playing host to some of the West End’s most pioneering work.

Burns co-produced and provided a West End home for the fantastic, boundary-pushing For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy at the Apollo Theatre. The show will return to one of Nimax’s other venues – the Garrick – in February.

Her programming also featured a notable strand of LGBT+ work. In addition to Brokeback Mountain at @sohoplace, Nimax’s 2023 line-up included Orlando at the Garrick with Emma Corrin, Eddie Izzard in Great Expectations, plus a strand of drag performances at the Lyric, which also hosted Bloody Elle and Boy Out the City as part of what it billed as a West End queer season.

Six continues to go great guns at the Vaudeville and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is in for the long haul at the Palace, as is The Play That Goes Wrong at the Duchess.

Meanwhile, on the road, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – again, an extraordinary, inclusive piece of new work – has returned for its second national tour. It continues well into 2024, currently booking until July.

Burns is also a mentor and supporter of young producers, many of whom produce their first West End shows in her venues.

Alongside all this, she continues to be a key figure in the live comedy world as organiser of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, which she helped save this year after they were threatened due to lack of sponsorship.

While both Ambassador Theatre Group and Delfont Mackintosh operate more West End theatres than Burns, and LW Theatres has significantly greater capacity across its venues, Burns’ influence on Theatreland’s future development outstripped them all in 2023.

Productions include: The Little Big Things, Medea, Brokeback Mountain, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, For Black Boys…
Coming up in 2024: Red Pitch, For Black Boys…, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (London and tour)

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.