FORKING OUT MILLIONS FOR A TICKET.

If you think tickets are expensive, imagine underwriting an entire production. Some patrons are doing just that  – paying millions to bring whole shows to the stage. David Spicer looks at the state of philanthropy in Australia and the surprising donors behind the Ring Cycle being staged in Melbourne and The Secret River, the epic  play which led the Sydney and Perth Festivals.

Maureen Wheeler is a legend amongst backpackers.  Together with husband Mark she founded the Lonely Planet publishing empire. They first published the yellow bible South East Asia on a Shoestring and eventually sold Lonely Planet  to the BBC for $250 million.

What’s not so well known is that Maureen Wheeler is passionate about opera. As a child she grew up in a public housing estate in Belfast, she became hooked on opera after her mother took her to The Merry Widow.

These days she can indulge her passion and has seen The Ring Cycle ten times.

“I didn’t go to see theRing in Adelaide and really regretted it. A few months later, I thought to myself that I’d like to see the Ring in Melbourne, where I could enjoy it without feeling jet-lagged, which is how I see most things!” she told Opera Australia.

Early media reports speculated that Maureen Wheeler was prepared to stump up ten million dollars to bring it to Melbourne.

Instead she went to lunch with Opera Australia bigwigs and got what she wanted for ‘half price’.. pledging five million dollars.

There surely must be cheaper ways of getting over jetlag! But no matter how much she has shelled out, it does not guarantee that her husband will sit through it.

“Tony does not share my obsession and cannot sit still for five minutes, let alone five hours. He’s going to see his first Ring in New York to prepare, but I know he’s nervous - and that makes me nervous! He’d much rather be going off to Afghanistan or the Congo instead. But even if he can’t go the distance, I’ve got eight friends coming over from the UK and US specially to see this.”

Some philanthropists like to see their name in lights.

Japanese businessman Dr Haruhisa Handa donated $3 million to Opera Australia for three grand open air operas on Sydney Harbour. La Traviata was the spectacle in 2012. Carmen takes to the water in 2013.

Sydney businessman and chairman of the Sydney Theatre Company David Gonski is not quite in the same league but his act of philanthropy is probably doing more good by financing a new work.

He’s now well known as the author of the Gonski report into education funding in Australia.

Less well known is the donation he made with his wife Orli Wargon and friends Simon and Catriona Mordant to bankroll one of the STC’s most ambitious productions to date.

Premiering in January was an adaptation Kate Grenville’s award winning novel The Secret River.

“Cate (Blanchett) and Andrew (Upton) came up with a vision to turn this into a play. This is not something a company can afford on its own, as there are great costs in creating new work, and risk,” he told Stage Whispers.

“The book is a wonderful read so we backed it. We don’t think it could have happened without private sponsorship. I’m pleased to see Neil Armfield agreed to be the director and Andrew Bovell agreed to be playwright,” he said.

The World Premiere was part of the Sydney Festival before touring to Canberra and headlines the Perth International Arts Festival.

The play was a smashing success and described by some as the best piece of theatre seen around town for years. ( Read our review here.)

It has not been revealed what the donation is but David Gonski says it’s “no-where near the five million” Maureen Wheeler coughed up.

If the play goes on to Broadway David Gonski will get no financial return on the investment.

“We would love it to (become a hit) but it is not designed to get a return other than the joy of sitting there, enjoying what has been done and adding a great play to the Australian library.”

Philanthropy and the arts has a long tradition.

“Most of the great composers were appointed to a House of Royalty. To be blunt, some of the backers are more remembered for backing a great artist than what they did during their lifetime,” he said.

Sydney businessman Dick Smith has long campaigned to have the wealthy donate more to a range of good causes. Amongst those he includes The Arts.

“Back in the 1950’s when I was a kid just about every wealthy person was also known as a philanthropist. It was almost a responsibility. Now it is quite different,” he told Stage Whispers.

“Some wealthy people are generous with the arts, but there are a hell of a lot of people that aren’t. They basically give nothing away at all.”

“Over the years we’ve helped the Australian Ballet and especially students travelling overseas and in training.”

But how do the arts stack up against other worthy causes?

“We would give 80% of our money to social causes, people who are less well off. We allocate about 20% to The Arts.”

He’s even invested in a show once when asked.

“Many years ago I heard Simon Gallaherwas thinking of putting on his version of Gilbert and Sullivan. So I agreed to become the major financial backer of that and I actually got my money back - which is incredible.”

David Gonski says Australia is building its tradition of philanthropy in the arts

“We are behind the Americans. What we get comes from a smaller group of people,” he said.

Australia also lacks the deep pockets of charitable foundations which exist in the United States.

But it is changing slowly. Helping has been a growth in private ancillary funds, which are registered trusts that people can donate to and receive a tax deduction.

“In total there is two and a half billion dollars (in these funds) and they give 160 million dollars a year to charities.”

Some are geared entirely towards the arts.

One is the Robert Salzer Foundation in Melbourne. Mr Salzer was a Jewish Viennese refugee who fled Nazism, settling in Australia where he established a successful building business.

He set up the fund in 1987 with a gift of$500,000. It was topped up with another $500,000 by his wife Betty when he died in 1995.

They were passionate about their local opera scene and this year one of the projects being funded is the World Premiere of The Magic Pudding, the opera staged by Victorian Opera.

Sydney has its own patron saint of the arts. When Rodney Seaborn died in 2008 at the age of 96 he was described by the Sydney Morning Herald as a latter-day, antipodean Medici.

He was a doctor who set up his own psychiatric hospital, but theatre was his passion.

In 1987 he saved the Stables Theatre in Kings Cross and his foundation continues to rent it to the Griffin Theatre Company gratis. 

The trust’s regular endeavours include a generous playwrighting award and housing an outstanding performing arts collection.

Not all the trusts have such a bias towards the arts.

“The Arts does have to compete for donations against many good causes but The Arts is getting its fair share,” said David Gonski.

So with a bit more luck we’ll be seeing Australian premieres, whether edible or floatable, in the years to come.

Images (from top): David Gonski, Maureen Wheeler, Dr Haruhisa Handa and Dr. Rodney Seaborn.

First published in the January / February edition of Stage Whispers.