WE’RE BACK IN (SHOW) BUSINESS!

Like most people in Peterborough we were gutted to hear the city had lost another theatre when the Cresset announced it was no longer going to run shows earlier this year… so yes, we’re guilty of a little celebratory jig now that the show, is indeed, going on!

Now a new deal’s been negotiated with promoters the Cresset is once again building a line-up of cracking shows we would’ve otherwise had to travel miles for. Previously there was around an 80/20 split with promoters taking the bigger chunk and the Cresset having to pay up regardless of how many seats had been sold – they’ve now managed to convince the promoters to hire the theatre out and so they now carry the risk.

Staff at the Cresset were stunned when comedian John Bishop made a heartfelt speech to his audience over the theatre’s closure at the end of his show, but It seems that good old people power and thousands of people signing petitions, also helped make the management determined to try and find a way forward.

Jonathan Martin, chief executive of YMCA Cambridgeshire and Peterborough which runs the complex under the direction of the Cresset Board of Trustees, told ESP the level of support blew them away.

“The public support has been unbelievable, it’s been shocking how many wrote, sent emails, signed petitions – so yes I hope now that we’ve made  a real effort to keep it going that they’ll show up, vote with their feet and support the acts coming here. I think we’ve got a really good variety so hopefully there’s something for everybody.”

Sadly some people have lost their jobs in the process and the box office has been scaled down, but the change of deal with the promoters combined with restructuring behind the scenes, should mean it’s now in a stronger position and for us the audience, everything will be business as usual.

“We’re on a much, much better footing than when we had to announce the theatre was closing,” explained Joanthan “because we’ve found a way that’s much lower risk to the organisation we can protect all the other community facilities here while at the same time providing the city with a theatre.”

Acts like Jane MacDonald are set to return, Stephen K Amos, The Stones tribute act, Peter Alliss the golf commentator as well as shows like Tango Pasion, Shakin’ All over featuring tunes from the 50s, 60s and 70s and Waterloo the ABBA concert show.

“We’ve got some great acts coming here for this season,” added Jonathan “but we’ve got to start working really hard for the year after. The first year we’ve said to people, come and do it on a room hire only deal. They may have done that because it’s difficult to find other venues or an easy option but the second year we’ve got to convince them it was a really good idea, and in order to do that it’s got to be worth their while and when they come and realise they’re making good money we’ll be OK.”

So as the old saying goes – use it, or lose it – so come on folks, we’ve almost lost it once, let’s make sure our city’s entertainment doesn’t die off!

www.cresset.co.uk