31 replies to this topic

[sjh11]

Honoured Guest, on 02 January 2012 - 12:11 PM, said:

Most of the ALW interview was factual so it's a bit nitpicky to disagree much with him. The evidence is there and theatre owners and producers have already planned their responses.

I think that is correct. In addition, he has created a huge amount of publicity for the theatre business, whether musicals or plays or in his theatres or not - the story was the second most read on the BBC website for much of the day. There's only a handful of people who can do that in the industry.

[igb]

El Peter, on 02 January 2012 - 11:32 AM, said:

I think the theatres should offer a promotion during the Olympics, say £10 a ticket for any show, any seat. Make it simple. Might lose a bit of money but would keep the theatres filled.


A good idea, Lynette. Whether £20, £15 or £10, something of that order would encourage attendance by people either of limited means for whom prices are too high, or curious about (musical) theatre but normally put off for whatever reason.

It's perhaps an opportunity to pitch to Londoners who don't go to the theatre.  There won't be any non-Olympics tourists, and Olympics tourists are going to be a tough sell, because it'll be hard to construct an advertising campaign to reach them before they arrive, and once they arrive their plans will be too fixed.  But Londoners who are in London because they live and work there, who perhaps haven't gone to the theatre because of the costs or because they don't like fighting through the tourists, are an obvious target market.  The West End will be Londoners only.

[QuincyMD]

He's also totally ignored the millions of us in the UK who are doing our best to ignore the Olympics, I shall be looking for some cheap deals during Olympic time as people look to bring in the crowds.

[armadillo]

Very few people got as many tickets as they wanted. So there will be plenty of people making the trip to London to only see  one or two events (not necessarily on the same day). I wouldn't assume that every Olympic visitor will have their time completely filled. Will there be much to do in East London for non ticket holders?

[igb]

armadillo, on 02 January 2012 - 10:53 PM, said:

Very few people got as many tickets as they wanted. So there will be plenty of people making the trip to London to only see  one or two events (not necessarily on the same day). I wouldn't assume that every Olympic visitor will have their time completely filled. Will there be much to do in East London for non ticket holders?

If you're a UK resident, you'd have to be very, very enthusiastic to stay in London in the period between your multiple events (if you have multiple tickets, which itself will be unusual).   At several hundred pounds per night for hotels, how many people are going to do anything other than go home unless the events are on successive days?

[Lynette]

The tourists won't know about booking ahead, igb and the hotels will have loads of offers and trips etc. Or they jolly well should have. I think it is an opportunity to fill the theatres with tourists and with the non sporting home grown.

[sjh11]

Lynette, on 02 January 2012 - 11:26 PM, said:

I think it is an opportunity to fill the theatres with tourists and with the non sporting home grown.

It certainly is, which is why ALW got extensive national PR at exactly the right time to publicise London theatre. And as The Times said on the subject today (with the story still running several days later) gloom-mongering is always going to grab more headlines. Good on him.

[DanielWhit]

El Peter, on 02 January 2012 - 11:32 AM, said:

Whether £20, £15 or £10, something of that order would encourage attendance by people either of limited means for whom prices are too high, or curious about (musical) theatre but normally put off for whatever reason. If theatres remain open during the Olympic period but business is below par then such seat price reductions will likely be offered. Unless as Andrew Lloyd Webber suggests, theatre producers would rather close for the duration.

Thing is - producers are very profit-driven people, they would prefer to close a show for a couple of weeks when it's clear it wouldn't make money than reduce seats to loss-making value in the hope that some people will come back again in the future.

[Orchestrator]

DanielWhit, on 03 January 2012 - 03:01 AM, said:

Thing is - producers are very profit-driven people, they would prefer to close a show for a couple of weeks when it's clear it wouldn't make money than reduce seats to loss-making value in the hope that some people will come back again in the future.

We've been told here on the Forum that the biggest cost for West End producers is the wage bill. Unless they can forcibly make Cast, Orchestra, and salaried crew take three weeks of their contractual holiday all at the same time during the Olympics, they won't save much money by closing.

[Jon]

I wouldn't be surprised if Get Into London Theatre is given a summer berth for the Olympics but I dunno if producers would want to do it given that Kids Weeks is in August and summer is the period where weekday sales are a lot stronger apart from Christmas, Easter and Half terms.