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As a special Christmas treat I am allowing myself to comment on this. My blood pressure is in check and I’m off today so any rage that might be generated won’t affect my work.

ALW is peeved for several reasons.

i) He thought he was on to a surefire winner, gathering up the cream of talent that ‘the kids’ think are cool (Fennell, Fletcher). Unfortunately two years later they weren’t quite so hot.

ii) His entitled ‘Lordship’ life made him think that the government’s rules would not apply to him. Unfortunately, 1500 people in ANY room was a problem and rather than socially distance he threw his toys out. I don’t know how long he financially supported the cast in the first lockdowns but I’m pretty sure that this extended closure is down to not paying people for six weeks to save some cash.

iii) Despite numerous opportunities to change the problematic bits of the show, he continues to believe that the core product is a winner and just meddles with individual lines or the colour of someones gloves. It needs a solid rewrite to turn it into the product that he thinks it is. The undeveloped threads of the Godmother, and how the mothers know each other might be clever-clever bits of adult subtext, but no other bits of narrative do this so find some consistency with a rewrite or ditch them.

iv) Change the marketing to make it clear what people will be getting rather than annoying parents that think its a fairytale. The majority of mainstream theatregoers don’t really want to have to decipher an arty poster to understand that it is not what they are expecting from using a recognisable name.

v) Blaming the cast for speaking out or not behaving like his usual bum lickers has not done either party any good. He has a great core cast that he’d do well to look after. Mud slinging rarely ends well.

Merry Christmas x