Sonia Friedman has been ranked first in The Stage 100, a performing arts power list published annually by industry publication The Stage.
This is probably no great surprise since her past year's hits have included Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Dreamgirls, Funny Girl and Nice Fish.
Sonia Friedman hasn’t had to move far along the list to get to the top—she came second in last year's list, but she is only the second woman to have reached the number one spot on her own.
Proving that statistics are to be taken with a pinch of salt, the 2017 list sees a 50% increase in women ranked 1 to 10 but across the whole list the increase is only 2% (up to 34%).
Looking at the top five places—Sonia Friedman, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cameron Mackintosh and Nicholas Allott, Mark Cornell and Adam Kenwright and Rufus Norris, Lisa Burger and Ben Power—the ratio is different again.
There are seven entries from black, Asian and minority ethnic professionals with Noma Dumezweni as the second highest placed performer ever.
Glenda Jackson and Michelle Terry who both played male leads and Natasha J Barnes and Ria Jones who both went on understudying big hitters, Sheridan Smith and Glen Close, are all on the list.
Kenneth Branagh, at 18, is the highest placed actor.
There is a three-stage process to the creation of The Stage 100 which lists the most influential people working in the industry weighted towards achievements over the last year but also taking into account continuous achievement.
There is no weighting by gender or ethnicity, thus reflecting the profile of the industry.