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Grease leads the way in booming West End
By Amar Singh, Evening Standard 08.07.08
Boom time: Danny Bayne and Susan McFadden in Grease at the Piccadilly Theatre - one of the year's strongest performances
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London's theatres enjoyed their most successful year on record in 2007, with more than 13 million attendances, new figures revealed today.
The annual Box Office Data Report, compiled by The Society of London Theatre, shows that two thirds of tickets sold were for musicals. Sales for these were boosted by reality TV contests in which cast members were chosen. Grease and Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, for example, had a particularly strong year.
The popularity of other musicals, including Wicked, Spamalot and Dirty Dancing, contributed to the record year.
The boom was further triggered by a number of 'big names' treading the boards, including Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe in Equus, Sir Ian McKellan in the RSC's production of King Lear, and Patrick Stewart in Macbeth at the Gielgud.
The figures for 2007 show the highest attendance since records began, with a record-breaking 13,636,540 people attending the theatre last year - a 10 per cent increase from 2006.
Published each year, The Society Of London Theatre Box Office Data Report analyses the differences in number of performances, attendance and receipts between the subsidised and commercial sectors, and discusses audience trends in relation to categories of production. It found that total ticket revenue in 2007 rose to £469,729,135 (up from £400,802,809 in 2006), generating VAT receipts of £70million.
SOLT Chief Executive Richard Pulford said: "2007 was something of an annus mirabilis for London theatre, with many new productions which caught the public imagination.
"These figures are a wonderful start to our Centenary Year, but in the current economic climate we're going to have to work very hard to maintain this level of success."
Despite the boom in audience figuresthe report's authors also sounded a note of caution, saying there was little evidence to confirm that first-time audience members drawn to the musicals connected to TV shows would return to see other productions.
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