[Lanark]

Last night I went to Sadler's Wells to see Edward 11. The programme cost £5. There was a perfectly good free cast list, I am happy to say which, given the programme content, I should have opted for although with ballet it is always adviseable to read the synopsis. What pissed me off was what I got for my fiver. Yards of corporate guff - and hard to work out information about who from the company was actually dancing - the production photographs appeared to be of different stars. There were some 50 pages but they were a criminal waste of wood pulp or whatever. Not that BRB is alone in this sort of rip off - the Bolshoi was worse - but just whyporgrammes should be so lousy is one of life's mysteries. And while I am on the subject could actors of both sexes stop thanking their families in their biogs, because truth to tell with some of them their families are culpable for having allowed them to go on stage in the first place.
A question - Why cannot a synopsis should go the free cast list. The answer - because it would stop people spending their fivers.
And another point -For reasons I cannot understand programmes never contain the director's reasons for whatever assault they have made on the material to hand, and sometimes that would be very good to know.

[David]

I don't often go to ballet, but I know what you mean with programmes generally, especially in the West End (and actually, spreading across to commercial theatre nationwide), where they have the appalling brochure and programme system- the brochure containing often dated photos of old casts, and the programme equivalent to a simple cast list, free elsewhere. I've commented on this before, but the Broadway system is far better, whereby the brochure usually costs a fortune, but doesn't have any advertising, and you get a free Playbill.

RSC programmes are quite good- usually a couple of articles relating to the play, rehearsal photos, some sort of justification/interpretation notes, as well as the usual cast list, synopsis, company list, bit of Shakespeare/company info, for £3.50.

[Matthew Winn]

I don't agree with people who say that a free Playbill is better. I've seen some. They're overpriced.

Items and characteristics I like to see in programmes:

Readable biographies written using proper sentences, rather than a flat list of roles and a statement of training. Make each bio read as though it has been written by a person. Make them interesting.

Cast headshots. I want to know who I'm watching, and unless the entire cast wear name badges like supermarket till staff the only way I can tell who's who is by the pictures.

Comments on changes made. Directors who consider themselves skilled enough to alter the original author's work should have the guts to be clear about what they've changed. I want to know how much of what I'm watching is the product of the author's mind and how much is the product of the director's. If you're ashamed to be honest about what you've changed you're probably not up to the job of changing it.

Reasonable prices. A decade ago some shows were selling programmes for 50p. Costs haven't risen by a factor of 10.

Real programmes, not last year's souvenir brochure with a cast list tucked inside and sold at souvenir brochure prices. Who the hell do you think you are, to dump your unsold stock under a fraudulent description?

Inserts listing the cast changes for that particular performance. All of them.

A plan of the theatre showing where the bars and toilets are.

[Biddy]

I want EASY access to the CAST List, & the list of SCENES & of any SONGS, & info re INTERVAL[s]:
eg in the MIDDLE pages, or at least very near -
NOT on some seemingly random hard-to-find page, like lots of (maybe ALL?) National Theatre programmes;
which also annoy me by not showing a headshot by each performer's biography
(nice though it is to see Rehearsal photos - I want BOTH!).

[Tintin]

With the amount of advertising that clogs up the programmes, especially for other productions by the same company, they really should be free of charge. Sometimes I have even found adverts for productions that came off long ago. And why is the quality of the photographs so poor so often?

[armadillo]

NT programmes invariably have worthwhile articles that enhance one's enjoyment of the play though I believe many WOS-ers boycott them lest they inadvertantly read something written by a Guardian journalist.

[Biddy]

NT programmes invariably have worthwhile articles that enhance one's enjoyment of the play

The NT articles do enhance my enjoyment AFTER the play - eg on the train home -
but they don't need central pages.
I want to be able to speedily check who's who, who's playing who[m?!], who sings what when, &/or how many intervals of how long - while I'm actually AT the Theatre!

[M George]

Programmes vary in quality but not so much in price and it's this that irritates me. I have no objection paying £4 for an opera programme from the big companies as they are usually rammed with information and interesting stuff to read. I do object, however, to being charged £4 for your basic musical or play programme at the Lowry or Birminghjam Hippodrom which predominatly consists of adverts with a mininal amount of pages devoted to essential information re current show. This is especially annoying when other theatres of a silmilar size manage to produce exactly the same programmes and flog them for £2.50 or £3.

[armadillo]

The NT articles do enhance my enjoyment AFTER the play - eg on the train home -
but they don't need central pages.
I want to be able to speedily check who's who, who's playing who[m?!], who sings what when, &/or how many intervals of how long - while I'm actually AT the Theatre!
[/quote]

I'm not sure what you mean by central pages - are you saying that the NT programmes shouldn't have cast lists? And why can't you check the casts while you're at the theatre using either the programmes or the cast lists that are free at the Lyttleton and Olivier?

What puzzles me is that new programmes often still carry adverts for shows that have closed months earlier.

[David]

Incidentally, I was in the finance office of a medium sized producing theatre company recently, and noticed an invoice for programmes. 50p each. Sold at £3.50.