New report examines pandemic’s effects on theatre programming

A new report has examined the state of programming on UK stages since the pandemic.

The British Theatre Consortium report, titled “British Theatre Before & After Covid”, examines 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, and 2023, the first full year after theatres reopened. It draws on anonymised data from 139 theatres across the UK.

Ten years ago, the British Theatre Consortium reported that new work had overtaken revivals in the UK repertoire for the first time. A follow-up study confirmed the trend.

The latest report shows that between 2019 and 2023, the number of productions fell by 14.5 per cent and performances by 3.6 per cent, but attendances rose by 6.8 per cent. Musicals grew in share, accounting for two-fifths of performances and nearly two-thirds of box office income in 2023. Drama declined proportionally.

New musicals rose from 37 per cent of the musical repertoire in 2019 to just over half in 2023 – and notably the report highlights that “musicals, despite driving the box office revival, saw the largest real-terms reduction in ticket prices.” There was a “a sizeable drop in the number of productions of new plays”, but these ran longer and filled more seats than other forms of new writing.

In a direct appeal, the report’s writers Dan Rebellato and David Edgar said: “we want to sound a note of alarm at the real decline in numbers of new plays produced: for a century or more, the new play has been at the heart of British theatre programming – but is by its very nature an unknown quantity.

They continued: “There is compelling evidence that theatre programming has shifted emphasis towards shows with some already-familiar element: adaptations and well-known plays, perhaps also big-name casting. It is to be hoped that conditions allow theatres to embrace once again the theatrical excitement of the unknown.”

Revivals decreased in number but attracted larger audiences and box office returns. Shakespeare dominated classical revivals, with Macbeth the most produced play in both years. Adaptations increased their share and performed strongly in larger venues, while translations fell sharply.

The 143-page report is fairly positive about the state of theatre by 2023, confessing that “UK theatres appear to have bounced back” and that “audiences in 2023 were substantially larger than they had been on the eve of the Covid crisis.”

Plays by women rose from 39.4 per cent of new plays in 2019 to 41.7 per cent in 2023, though performances and income for these plays declined slightly. London strengthened its dominance, accounting for 80 per cent of income and nearly 70 per cent of attendances in 2023. Ticket prices fell in real terms, with the biggest reductions in the aforementioned musicals and opera.

The report also discusses the seeming change in booking patterns, claiming there is no evidence to support claims that “audiences are booking later” than pre-pandemic.

They did, however, claim that “one way of reconciling the perception with the data is that possibly audiences were booking later in 2021 and 2022 and theatres have adjusted their programming and marketing in 2023 to counteract this trend: by programming more work for which audiences typically book earlier (such as musical theatre), opening up booking earlier, making use of star names in publicity, and so on.”

The full report is available at British Theatre Consortium.