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War Horse wins battle for full houses at National Theatre
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent22 Sep 2009
The highest attendance figures for seven years helped the National Theatre to a £456,000 surplus, its annual report revealed today.
The surplus, on an increased turnover of £55million, will now go towards multi-million-pound plans to make the theatre fit for the 21st century.
The masterplan includes a "centre for participation" for education work as well as energy-saving environmental measures.
War Horse, the adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's First World War story now running in the West End, was again the biggest earner, taking £2.7million at the box office and playing to 99 per cent capacity.
The passion for War Horse has now been documented in the first NT documentary from an expanded in-house film-making arm. It will be shown on More 4 this year.
The total programme of 25 productions in 2008/2009 was seen by 817,000 paying audience members in what was the highest attendance for seven years. Houses were on average 93 per cent full.
Thousands more saw the National's plays at the cinema after it ventured into relays of plays, including Jean Racine's Phèdre.
With a time delay to America and Australia, 28,000 people saw Helen Mirren take on the tragic title role in the first 24 hours and a total of 50,000 people saw it on a cinema screen. Nicholas Hytner, the National's director, said: "We sold 85 per cent of all available tickets for Phèdre in UK cinemas, so I've a feeling we might have underestimated our potential audience.
"Many cinema managers were thrilled to welcome to Phèdre the over-25s, whose custom, particularly during the summer months, they felt they had lost as a consequence of the kind of movies being delivered to them by the studios for exhibition.
"I am confident we have pioneered a new genre - not quite live theatre, certainly not cinema, but an exciting approximation of the real thing - whose potential reach is limitless."
The final performance of the acclaimed production of Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well will be the next cinema broadcast on 1 October.
The review confirms that Sunday openings are now a permanent feature at the National after the four-month pilot at the beginning of the year achieved 99 per cent capacity.
