Whether the branding and clarity of focus will ensure an effect on fundamentals such as rehearsal time and workshopping remains to be seen. I expect, if asked, the review team would subscribe to the trickle-down theory of economics. But the report has a real concern for the arts. The trouble is that strategies are orderly and the arts aren't. Artists move around.
Audiences are fickle.
One tour works, the next one crashes. A brilliant new director fails to deliver. The most innovative work often happens off centre - at La Mama or Black Swan perhaps. Astra plays more contemporary music to a more dedicated audience than anywhere. The trick will be to make sure that the smaller companies and individual artists benefit from this review as well.