Co-founded by Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire in 1992, the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) has a total of 38 venues across the UK. When the new Aylesbury Waterside Theatre opens in October 2010, this total will stand at 39. ATG is also one of the country’s foremost theatre producers and has been behind some of the most successful and innovative productions in Britain and internationally.
ATG’s impressive portfolio of West End theatres includes historic buildings such as the Apollo Victoria, Comedy, Donmar Warehouse, Duke of York’s, Fortune, Lyceum, Phoenix, Piccadilly, Playhouse, Savoy, Trafalgar Studio 1 and Trafalgar Studio 2.
ATG’s regional theatres include The Ambassadors Woking encompassing the New Victoria and Rhoda McGaw Theatres and the award-winning 6 screen cinema complex, Ambassador Cinemas; Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham; Theatre Royal Brighton; Bristol Hippodrome; Churchill Theatre Bromley; Edinburgh Playhouse; Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone; King’s Theatre and Theatre Royal, Glasgow; Grimsby Auditorium; Liverpool Empire; Palace Theatre and Opera House, Manchester; Milton Keynes Theatre; New Theatre, Oxford; Richmond Theatre; Southport Theatre; Regent Theatre and Victoria Hall, Stoke-on-Trent; Sunderland Empire; Princess Theatre, Torquay; New Wimbledon Theatre and New Wimbledon Studio; Grand Opera House, York.
Current and recent ATG co-productions in London and internationally include The Misanthrope starring Damian Lewis and Keira Knightley; the successful and critically acclaimed award-winning musical West Side Story, at Sadler’s Wells and on tour in the UK; Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard; the hit comedy Fat Pig by Neil LaBute; Harold Pinter’s The Lover/The Collection; Elling starring John Simm; The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess directed by Trevor Nunn; Guys and Dolls starring Ewan McGregor; Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd and the Tony Award winning Company, both on Broadway and The Rocky Horror Show.
ATG is also mounting productions around the world. ATG’s recent productions in Australia include The Rocky Horror Show and Guys and Dolls, with West Side Story scheduled for 2010. Recent ATG productions on Broadway include Geoffrey Rush and Susan Sarandon starring in Exit the King.
Other ATG successes include the co-production of The Weir in London and on Broadway (winner of the 1999 Olivier Award for Best New Play); Smokey Joe’s Café in the West End and the Olivier award-winning Slava’s Snowshow in the West End and North America plus the multi award-winning West End musical, Carmen Jones.
ATG has a wholly owned subsidiary company Sonia Friedman Productions (SFP), led by Sonia Friedman, who is one of the most prolific producers in the West End and on Broadway. Current and recent productions include the smash hit musical Legally Blonde, Othello, La Cage Aux Folles, Arcadia, Boeing-Boeing, The Norman Conquests, The Seagull, No Man’s Land and Tom Stoppard’s Rock ’n’ Roll.
ATG also owns a major national family entertainment and pantomime company, First Family Entertainment (FFE). FFE produced 12 pantomimes for the Christmas 2009/2010 season featuring a star-studded line up including Pamela Anderson, Paul O’Grady, Joanna Page, Henry Winkler, Mickey Rooney, Gray O’Brien, Brian Blessed, Ruby Wax and Claire Sweeney.