As he put it, "You tell them, 'I know that you, the state, are lying, mercenary, but by law you must help theatre and the arts, so be good — fulfill your obligations.' For the sake of theatre, I'm not ashamed to do this".
9.24am BST Osborne says his theatre tax credit is designed specifically to help theatres outside London.
On the other hand, he has no appetite for public campaigning: "I'll always help the theatre world achieve greater strength, but I don't want to be a spokesperson for the arts".
I'd pick a movie that I wanted to see both for distraction and out of my old habits as a film reviewer then locate, with my friend's help, a theatre that was showing it.
The new Everyman, designed by architects Haworth Tompkins, is intended to help the theatre generate more funds for itself, Ms Bodinetz said.
Emma De Souza, development manager at the Society of London Theatre, says the film High School Musical and the hit TV show Glee had helped musical theatre throw off its "geeky" reputation.
Family spectacles such as the musical The Lion King helped London theatre box-office revenues top £500m for the first time last year, and theatres across the country are staging more productions aimed at the young.
That production was the first commercial transfer the National produced itself, a tactic that has helped the theatre increase turnover by £40m a year.
And the training needed to deliver up Shakespeare, and those who followed, helps the theatre, as it's hard to progress to film and TV without having first given live performance a go.
Bare Oaks Family Naturist Park helped the theatre company out by creating a Facebook group, and soon naturists were buying tickets from as far afield as Ottawa, Ontario, and across the border in Buffalo, New York.
His modern malapropisms helped American theatre burst out of the drawing rooms that had dominated the stage for much of the previous decade; in particular, Odets's plays were among the first in which the recognisable rhythms of Jewish speech found their way into American theatre.
