THE STAGE SHOW


Many years ago when I was Station Manager of ABC's Radio National, I worked with Chris Westwood to create a daily series of programmes about the arts. Over time, the content has morphed and changed but there were still key elements of what we'd put together - shows about books, music, the visual arts and the performing arts. And suddenly, The Stage Show has gone. I'm sure the ABC will say that there'll be coverage of the performing arts in the context of their weekly Arts Hour but I think it's a tragedy the programs been cancelled given that the live performance arts of theatre, dance, opera, ballet, circus, cabaret, musicals are all still stuggling to regain audiences post-Covid.

Roger Grant, Gwen Bennett, Norman Swan, me, Chris Westwood - 1992



2024 statistics produced by Live Performance Australia show that more people attend performing arts events than ticketed sports events. Of course, in those statistics the most popular category is contemporary music which is covered by other ABC radio stations and RN's The Music Show but this still leaves 55% of the 31.4 million tickets sold to people attending the other performing arts. This is the equivalent of 65% of all sports tickets sold that year. I can’t imagine that the ABC would ever reduce its sports coverage by 65% overnight. I've written to them complaining about this loss of coverage and they haven't bothered to reply. Shoes how much they really care about Australian culture.

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