What Motivates Saint Cameron???

Is the same karma motivating Cameron Mackintosh? Prior to the RSC’s arrival at the Novello (See News, 7 Jun 2005), the impresario will spend more than £3 million refurbishing the theatre (See News, 23 May 2005). That’s on top of multi millions he’s already spent on the Prince Edward and the Prince of Wales Theatres and the many many millions more he has earmarked for the Albery (to be renamed the Noel Coward), Wyndham’s, and as part of a major new Shaftesbury Avenue complex, the Gielgud, Queen’s and still-to-be-built Sondheim. Why is Mackintosh digging so deep into his own pockets, journalists at yesterday’s press conference wanted to know. “As you might have noticed, I’ve made a great deal of money in the West End and, quite frankly, I can’t take it with me,” he told them. His ambition for theatreland’s many historic venues is, he said, that “when I part, I can say with my hand on my heart, they’ll last another hundred years.” He added that theatres “don’t need to be knocked down, they need to be refurbished and lovingly reinvented”.

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