Interview

Tony Field

Professor Anthony (Tony) Field is one of the creative forces behind the creation of LIPA, the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts that is Paul McCartney's answer to the New York School of Performing Arts that inspired the film and stage musical, Fame. He is also a regular write for the industry newspaper The Stage, set up the arts administration course at the City University, has lectured on theatre in England, America and worldwide, and has also produced in the West End. He recently published a collection of his articles from The Stage - Pages From Stages (Entertainment Technology Press, 2004). Paul Webb popped up to his Leicester Square office to meet him.

How did you get involved in the creation of LIPA? "It began many years ago when I was Finance Director of the Arts Council. Tommy Steele, who had begun his career as a skiffle player on the boats that went from Liverpool to New York, and graduated to starring in Singin' In The Rain at the London Palladium, came to see me with an idea of starting a school for performers. He had learned how to be a star the hard way and wanted to give young people a better start to their careers.

"This was a good idea but it didn't get all that far. Later On, Andrew Lloyd Webber also wanted to start that sort of a school, and was thinking of using the Palace Theatre, which he had recently bought, as a base for teaching students. he thought there should be a place where all the various disciplines needed for a career in musical theatre could be taught under one roof. But once Cameron Mackintosh brought Les Miserables to the theatre it was fully occupied.

"Despite this I started a company to create such a place, even though we had no money and no premises. The next development was when Richard Branson phoned and offered £1 million towards a school. we got the ball rolling and set up in Selhurst, Croydon, called the Brit School after the main sponsors, and it is still flourishing, teaching younger students.

"The final development, which led to LIPA, was when Paul McCartney phoned me and said he would give £1 million to founding what became LIPA which aimed at older students who wanted a career in musical theatre - provided we based it at his old school in Liverpool, which was in a state of disrepair. There was some chance of Liverpool Council turning it into a Beatles Museum and he was determined it should be used for something living and that looked to the future not to the past. Along with Mark Featherstone-Witty I was able to someone raise the rest of the money, with Paul McCartney adding another million pounds on the way. We estimated that LIPA would cost about £8 million to get up and running but it actually came in at £18 million! It has been going for 9 years now, is a great success and next year we'll celebrate the 10th anniversary with a concert by ex graduates of the School"

You go there regularly? "Yes, and I was up there recently with Cameron Mackintosh, doing a question-and answer session with him in front of about 50 students. We talked about the various aspects of producing a West End musical. At the same time one of Cameron's leading staff gave another masterclass, on the technical aspects of staging musicals, to about 200 students. Both events were a great success!"

LIPA has a great reputation but the best-known school of that sort, giving a complete education in performing in musicals, must be the New York School of Performing Arts - the place that Fame is based on. Do you think the Americans have a better attitude to musical theatre than we do? "They certainly have a different attitude. Things are changing now, partly thanks to places like LIPA, but traditionally the British have been a bit snobbish about musicals - they haven't been taken as seriously as straight plays. Whereas in America they have been a part of mainstream culture, with opera singers and ballet dancers happily taking part - as in South Pacific and On Your Toes. From as early as the 1930s there has been a real cross-over between various theatrical arts forms in America, and musicals have always been taken seriously. They award Pullitzer prizes for musicals as well as plays"

Speaking of musicals, I'm off to Manchester for an Ivor Novello concert that the Hallé orchestra are giving. Are you a Novello fan and did you see any of his musicals? "Yes, I'm a great fan, and I saw several of his shows at the Palace, Manchester, where they were staged before coming into London - musicals like The Dancing Years and Perchance To Dream. I also saw him at a preview of his last show, Gay's The Word. It was shortly before he died - he was in a box at the theatre and looked very poorly. Still, his music lives on and it's high time one of his musicals was revived!"

You've produced musicals yourself - is it easier or harder to stage shows these days? "Basically I think it's harder, in that it's so much more expensive than it used to be - even if you factor in inflation. And raising money is more difficult, given teh expense and risk involved in staging a show. I also think that the increasing habit of theatre owners producing their own shows tends to squeeze out the young independent producers that a healthy theatre industry needs."

Do you use lastminute.com? "No, but my secretary, Liz, does quite a lot. I'm far too old to learn how to use a computer. I write everything with a quill pen and pass it over to Liz who understands how to use a computer. I've managed quite well without one for over seventy years and it's too late to start now. And with Liz around I don't need to!"

Do you have a favourite theatre restaurant? "I like Bertorelli's, and Joe Allen's - there are always lots of theatre people there - and also Spaghetti House in Leicester Square. I treat it almost like an office."

Like Adam Faith at Fortnum and Mason's? "Actually the role model wasn't Adam Faith but Richard Pilbrow, the lighting designer and my colleague at Theatre Projects. When he went to New York to light Fiddler on the Roof for Harold Prince, he didn't have an office. He started by having meetings at a Broadway restaurant, Sam's, and ended up being given a large round table at the back of the restaurant, which he used as his office while he was in New York!"

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By Paul Webb
Thursday April 7