Recession?… What recession?
SOLT has just announced that 2008 was a record-breaking year for West End theatre with millions of people choosing to see a show in London.
The final total was a whopping 13,807,286 theatregoers – up 1% on 2007. To put this in perspective, Broadway in 2008 achieved a total audience of 12,319,902; the O2 arena sold 1,806, 447 tickets, and Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet tour was the highest grossing in concert history, entertaining 2,350,282 million fans.
It’s not all good news though as musicals were the main beneficiary of the increases whilst plays dropped 1%.
Also SOLT reports that the second half of 2008 was less successful than the first half, perhaps indicating that 2009 may still prove to be a challenging year. However, the West End is certainly fully prepared for a fight, with a slew of big hitting shows and stars landing in town over the next few months.
LINKS:
Beat the crunch and buy discounted tickets to London theatre
