With the news that the Ambassador Theatre Group has bought up a clutch of British theatres, including Manchester's Palace Theatre, could the Royal Opera House's great push northward be thwarted?
The controversial plan involved redeveloping the frankly knackered Palace at a cost of some £80m in order to make it suitable for showing opera and ballet. Unless the ROH have some sneaky deal with ATG up their sleeves (a possibility), it would seem the alternatives are either using an existing venue, such as the purpose-built Lowry, or giving up on the idea altogether.
Wouldn't it be fascinating to find out just how much taxpayers' money has been spent on consultants and reports and projections for a plan which always looked questionable in the first place, and now might be dead in the water?
