Donmar West End Reaches 98% Capacity Houses
With the season’s final offering, the Jude Law-led Hamlet now previewing on Broadway (See News, 30 Jun 2009), the Donmar Warehouse has today published “Year in Review” box office results for its year-long “Donmar West End” residency, which ran from September 2008 to August 2009 at the West End’s Wyndham’s Theatre (See News, 10 Sep 2007).
The unsubsidised season – comprising high-profile productions of Ivanov starring Kenneth Branagh, Twelfth Night starring Derek Jacobi, Madame de Sade starring Judi Dench and Hamlet – played to 98% capacity overall, with 13.5% of the audience first-time bookers.
Jude Law proved the biggest box-office draw, playing to 99% capacity. However, despite his obvious appeal to younger audiences, his production achieved the lowest level of first-time bookers – 10% compared to the highest of 20% for Ivanov – presumably because tickets were snapped up so quickly.
A key tenet of the season was to make Donmar productions available to a wider audience – with longer runs at Wyndham’s, which has three times as many seats (750) as the Donmar’s 250-seat Covent Garden home base – at affordable Donmar prices. Top-price tickets were capped at £32.50. In addition, almost 9,000 schoolchildren saw the productions and 42,900 tickets were sold at £10 over the course of the year. The Donmar West End schedule also included Sunday performances, which played to 97% capacity.
Play by play, Ivanov achieved 97% capacity with 20% first-timers; Twelfth Night had 96% and 12%; Madame de Sade 94% and 12%; and Hamlet 99% and 10%.
The season was not without its occasional hiccoughs, including poor reviews for the premiere of Japanese playwright Yukio Mishima’s Madame de Sade and the withdrawal of the season’s creative associate Kenneth Branagh from directing duties on Hamlet (See News, 14 Oct 2008), which meant that Grandage ended up helming all four Donmar West End offerings. But, for the most part, the productions were showered with critical raves and substantially contributed to the Donmar’s domination of the past year’s theatre awards ceremonies.
In a statement about the “Year in Review” figures released today, Grandage said: “”We’re genuinely thrilled with the results. The whole project was a high-risk strategy with ticket prices being so low. Everyone rose to the challenge and I believe we have successfully contributed to the ongoing debate about straight plays in the West End. Our key ambitions were affordable ticket prices, education, and new audiences. I am delighted so many theatregoers were able to engage in this year of work and that the impact of the season contributed to the recently reported rise in play attendance.”
