Nice scoop from the Noord Hollands Dagblad today. Rick Engelkes, the perpetually wobbly soap opera actor who learnt the trade as a successful producer at Joop van den Ende, devised a musical that was never performed because of coronasteun. It earned him millions. Read the story here.
Tl;dr: Engelkes announced in 2020 that he was making a musical about William of Orange, to be played in Delft. Despite all the big announcements of expensive investments and actors, it turns out not a penny was invested, but the producer collected €3.7 million from Coronasteun for this non-existent project
I will admit, at the time, in the surveys for support, I already saw the remarkable musical plans in the surveys. Since we were then up to our ears in the retrospectively successful action of musical makers sat, (who managed to keep musical money within Joop van den Ende's sphere of influence via a swift action via the Culture Council) I did not delve further into it at the time. Too bad, in retrospect, because this new case is distressing.
Counting rich
While self-employed people in the cultural sector are among the hardest hit, entrepreneur Engelkes managed to get rich by using corona as an excuse to rake in money. And 3.7 million is no cypher. This way, you also start looking differently at the support other big producers received. We already did that a bit in the performing arts sector, but the free producers, who initially put up a big throat but were later remarkably quiet, deserve a closer look.
Rick Engelkes, however, is keeping quiet. The musical about William the Silent may soon be made by others, with a different protagonist. Rick de Zwijger. Pretty funny.
As soon as this reporter has recovered from corona, and can make really funny language jokes again, we will get down to business. Help is welcome.
English (UK) 
Nederlands 
Français 
