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West End theatre dancing its way to record
By Louise Jury and Jonathan Prynn, Evening Standard 01.10.07
Time of their lives: Josef Brown (Johnny) and Nadia Coote (Penny) take centre stage in Dirty Dancing, one of the big musicals drawing audiences to the West End
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West End theatre is on course for a record year with takings currently 14 per cent up on last year's box office-busting results.
Leisure companies are reporting sales of theatre packages up 50 per cent on last year after poor summer weather boosted demand.
Advance bookings are running at £60 million, even if a handful of shows such as Joseph, Dirty Dancing and The Sound Of Music account for most of it. This is higher than last autumn, when a rash of new blockbuster musicals attracted £43.5 million early sales.
Richard Pulford, chief executive of the Society of London Theatre, said: "The industry is fairly confident. Advance figures are very strong."
Although fewer musicals this autumn would mean a dip in takings on the same time last year - not least because musicals tend to be in bigger venues - he was cautiously confident records would be set by the end of the year.
An autumn line-up of stars including Christian Slater, Charles Dance, Sir Ian McKellen and Jonathan Pryce in dramas should draw crowds as well as answer critics of the number of musicals in the West End. Patrick Stewart, who has received rave reviews as Macbeth, has already pulled in extraordinary advance sales.
There are some massive openings on the horizon. Tickets have just gone on sale for Trevor Nunn's production of Gone With The Wind which opens next April.
Travel and restaurant businesses will also benefit. Mark Bower of lastminute.com said package deals were up more than 50 per cent on last year.
"Big name shows like The Lord Of The Rings and the popularity of TV shows such as Grease Is The Word and Any Dream Will Do have put theatre firmly back on map," he said. "No trip to the capital is complete without taking in a show."
Barbara Stott of the Theatrebreaks agency brings around 20,000 customers to London a year and said figures would be "slightly up" this year.
But the biggest box offices do not necessarily translate into the biggest profits for producers. Wicked, for example, set a West End record for the highest weekly gross when it took £873,020 in December and more than £28 million at the box office in its first year. But it only recouped its investment just before its first anniversary.
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