Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Donmar West End season records 98% average attendances
The Stage: "London’s Donmar Warehouse has revealed that its West End season at the Wyndham’s Theatre recorded average attendances of 98%, including 13.5% of first-time theatre bookers."
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3 comments:
this is great to hear about a show that is doing amazing in the economy we are in. i finding some what inserting that they have to sell 85 percent of the tikes in the house to break even on the show. i am glad that they are doing so well and they seem like this show should run for a decent amount of time. i would like to see shows that will brake this record of 98 percent of the house sold. that would be great sine that theater is thriving and doing well.
An average of 98% is stunning, especially the fact that none of the productions dipped below 94% on their own. Now granted, they have some serious heavy hitters filling the roles (I mean, Kenneth Branagh, Jude Law and Dame Judy Dench in one season?), but it really does say a lot for the possibility of straight plays succeeding in the big commercial theatre areas like Broadway and the West End. The fact that the season consisted of two Shakespeares and a Chekhov additionally bolsters the argument that the "classics" are still fresh for today's audiences, which is very interesting indeed. This season boasts "A Streetcar Named Desire" (which I'm not so worried about receiving support), but also includes an adaptation and a new work, which likely will not get as many accolades as last season's shows... we'll see what happens.
It is great to see this and is great to see that theater is not suffering. Donmar is an incredible company that does new and amazing work- such as Cabaret with Alan Cumming. This amazing attendence rates is obvious becuase of the quality they hold for their shows. It just goes to show that quality theater will always be sucessful. Maybe some producers will take note and try to do the same.
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