Ep 37: Katy Lipson, theatre producer and founder of Aria Entertainment.

Aria Entertainment was founded in 2012 by Katy Lipson. In 2017, Katy was awarded the Best Producer award by the Off-West End Awards and is a recipient of the Stage One Bursary and Start Up Award. She made “The Stage 100” in 2018, 2019 and 2020 for her work at Hope Mill Theatre and in 2021 for her work as a solo producer.

Katy produced the UK Premiere Tour of The Addams Family and the 50th Anniversary production of HAIR at the London Vaults, which she originally co-produced with Hope Mill Theatre in 2016, where she was the Producing Artistic Director for all in-house musicals from 2016 – 2019. HAIR (The Vaults) won the award for Best Off-West End Production at the 2018 Whatsonstage Awards and completed a major UK Tour in 2019. Their transfer of Pippin, which played at the Southwark Playhouse, was nominated for a record number of Off West End Awards. Their production of Spring Awakening won the award for Best Regional show at the 2019 WOS awards. In 2012, the bicentenary year of Charles Dickens’ birth, she produced a revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood at the Arts Theatre, West End. This was followed by a transfer to the same venue in 2017 of new musical The Toxic Avenger following runs at The Edinburgh Festival’s Pleasance Theatre and the Southwark Playhouse.

Katy set up the From Page to Stage festival to support new musicals at all difference stages of development. In 6 years FPTS has given platform to over 100 new musicals of which many have gone on to have full productions and be licensed worldwide and now they run a full-time literary department for new musicals.

Other productions include: Mame (UK Tour), which was nominated for 7 WhatsOnStage Awards and starred Tracie Bennett; Unexpected Joy(Southwark Playhouse and York Theatre, Off-Broadway); It’s Only Life (Union Theatre); Mame, The Astonishing Times of Timothy Cratchit, Rags, Putting it Together, The Return of the Soldier, Pippin, Spring Awakening, Aspects of Love, Little Women, The ToyBoy Diaries, Yank!, Parade and HAIR (Hope Mill Theatre); the London transfers of Pippin (Southwark Playhouse) and Yank! (Charing Cross Theatre); Rags and tick, tick…BOOM! (Park Theatre); The Last 5 Years, Aspects of Love, The Toxic Avenger and Promises, Promises (Southwark Playhouse); Vanities The Musical (Trafalgar Studios); The House of Mirrors & Hearts(Arcola Theatre); See What I Wanna See and The Return Of The Soldier (Jermyn Street Theatre); The Adventures of Pinocchio, Lizzieand The Who’s Tommy (Greenwich Theatre), Marry Me A Little, Jerry’s Girls and Forever Plaid (St. James Studio); Bar Mitzvah Boy, That’s Jewish Entertainment, Bette Miller and Me, The Jewish Legends, The Great Jewish American Songbook and The MGM Story (Upstairs at the Gatehouse and The Radlett Centre).

Other current projects include: The Osmonds (UK Tour); C-o-n-t-a-c-t (Various Worldwide Productions); Sammy (Lyric Hammersmith); The Addams Family (UK Tour) and Elton John: It’s A Little Bit Funny (UK Tour).

Twitter: @AriaEnts
Website: aria-entertainment.com