Production Physiotherapy’s a star of stage and screen, working behind the scenes where its elite sports model keeps performers in peak condition so the shows always go on and audiences have the time of their lives.
One of PP’s current smart moves is ensuring that, amid the hilarious havoc powering West End comedy The Play That Goes Wrong, every energetic act is immaculately and safely executed.
In sports drama The Boys in the Boat, directed by George Clooney, its job was to get cast members slimmer and fitter to match the demands of their roles as Olympic rowers.
Among its credits too are helping Mary Poppins float above the chimney pots and Strictly’s celebs strike their best poses beneath the glitter ball.
Working with individual performers, directors, producers and companies, hands-on PP is the first of its kind in the UK and also advises productions internationally.
“Actors are like top athletes, their work is high pressure, we’ve taken the elite sports model and applied it to an underserved sector,” say business partners and professional sports therapists Sophie Lane and Barry Sigrist who founded PP in 2015.
“Our work is proactive, totally focussed on the actor as a whole, their health and wellbeing which includes nutrition and sleep, how they breathe, prepare their vocal muscles or high kick,” explains performing arts specialist Lane. “Given the nature of our business, we’re ready to help at a moment’s notice, and identify high stress moments.
“This is a far cry from what the sector has traditionally experienced. We don’t just turn up, charge an hourly rate and leave. We go beyond physio. There can be a two-month gap between casting and rehearsal and we can use that time to teach techniques to avoid injury and illness. This benefits performers and production companies as having a cast member off can be very costly.”
“Science underpins everything we do,” adds Sigrist who leads PP’s film side. “We provide clients with valuable data which can be used for prevention and enhancing performance as well as rehabilitation.”
Treatments are carried out on location or in London at the company’s Covent Garden clinic. Musical theatre is going through a purple patch especially in the capital and PP is forecasting a £500,000 plus turnover in 2026. After rigorous bootstrapping it is now expanding its clinic, taking on its first full time employee to support its contractor network and develop new services.
A partnership with chain Pure Gym enables a discount for customers and its upskilling hub Production Education, designed as an authoritative source empowering performers and dancers to look after themselves, features a trove of information and hundreds of videos.
In a sector driven by word of mouth and relationship networks, winning new clients has been PP’s chief challenge. But “optimising distribution of Production Education will change that,” say the pair who, in the true spirit of Broadway masterpiece A Chorus Line, are creating more than one singular sensation with every step they take. www.productionphysiotherapy.com
