Jo Caird: Could TasteTheatre.com Change the way Londoners go to the Theatre?

You
fancy something ‘reality blurring’ perhaps, that would be suitable
‘for a date’ this week – TasteTheatre.com suggests either Rough
Cuts: The Victorian in the Wall at
the Royal Court or Drawing Theatre: Creative Life
Drawing at the BAC. How about a ‘cool’ show ‘for families’? The
software comes up with Ruddigore
at
the Greenwich Theatre and Chrildren’s
Workshops: Sunday Music Series for
kids from the age of four to eight at the Tricycle.

The
results of these searches are illustrative of the potential of the
Arts
Council-funded scheme
to flag up the sorts of niche and limited run theatre experiences
that might otherwise pass punters by. Only a small percentage of
London’s theatre events are covered editorially, either in the form
of previews or reviews, and while the information is there in
listings guides and on the theatres’ websites, potential audiences
are unlikely to find something they’re not looking for. People signed
up to these theatres’ mailing lists would probably have heard of
these shows and workshops but the likelihood is that you’ll only be
signed up if you’ve visited that particular theatre before, so new
audiences are bypassed entirely.

In
addition to the various shows the software finds to fit your
requirements, almost every search also turns up adverts for the
theatres’ discounted ticketing schemes, as well as their bars and
restaurants. This initially struck me as a rather cynical use of a website that purports to widen audience
development, but on reflection, I can see the wisdom of such a ruse:
if you’re considering booking to see a show directly after work, the
presence (or not) of an inexpensive cafe at the theatre where you can
get a quick supper might be the decider of whether you buy those
tickets or not.

But
will it work? Could TasteTheatre.com actually change the way we make
our theatre choices? Will such a scheme really tempt punters to trek
across London to take a chance on a show they’ve never heard of at an
unknown theatre rather than stick to their trusted local venue? Or is
it just a shiny new marketing vehicle for the theatres involved?

My
instinct is that theatre-goers will respond positively and the
theatres involved (the Almeida,
Battersea Arts Centre, the Bush, Donmar Warehouse, Greenwich Theatre,
Hampstead Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith, Royal Court, Soho, Theatre
Royal Stratford East, the Tricycle and the Young Vic) will see
greater audience cross-over than is currently taking place.

This
all depends, of course, on the usability of the website and how
successfully it is publicised.

So
far the site is attracting 10,000 unique visitors a month, a figure
it hopes to double within a month of launch (to put that figure in
perspective, Whatsonstage.com attracts 569,000 unique visitors per
month – Tastetheatre.com has a long way to go on this front). Out
of the 12 theatres, however, only BAC, Greenwich, the Lyric
Hammersmith, the Tricycle and the Young Viv have a link to
TasteTheatre.com on their home page; the Donmar Warehouse has the
logo, but no link. This is something that needs to change if these
theatres hope to see changes in audience demographics.

From
my own experience playing with search terms, I can tell
you that TasteTheatre.com is pleasing to look at and easy to
navigate. Once you’ve found a show you like the sound of, the click
of a link takes you to the theatre’s online booking page. There are
also buttons on each listing that allow you to create Facebook
events, add the show to various calendars, email yourself and others
details of the show, and of course, post to all the popular social
networking sites. It is these simple but clever details that make me
think that TasteTheatre.com has a good chance of success. Getting
visitors to the site is a challenge, but once they’re there, I think
they’ll like what they find.