West End shows still hottest tickets in town despite the big freeze

The Icelandic ash cloud, the Fifa World Cup and the worst winter in three decades could not hold audiences back from the West End last year, which continued to defy the economic climate and smash box office records.

According to a survey by the Society of London Theatre (Solt), the capital's box office revenues rose by 1.5 per cent between 2009 and 2010 despite a slew of one-off obstacles accompanying wider economic gloom. West End musicals such as Wicked and We Will Rock You buoyed the capital's theatre economy, which enjoyed an increase in takings for the seventh year in a row.

"Theatre is something we do very well in this country, and there are various circumstantial reasons last year why it out-performed other industries," said The Stage's deputy editor Alistair Smith. "It's probably one of the only industries we are world leader at. I don't think we are immune from recession but so far we are proving extremely resilient."

The news comes despite an estimated contraction in the British economy of 0.5 per cent during 2010's final quarter, according to Office for National Statistics figures released earlier this week. Overall West End theatre revenues for 2010 stood at £512m, up from 2009's £505m. Audiences stood at 14.1 million, a decrease of 0.8 per cent from 2009's total of 14.3 million.

"The weak pound has helped tourist numbers, and the poor economy means people take fewer holidays and look for distractions elsewhere," Mr Smith said. "I would say takings are up but attendances are down because of events such as the snow and the ash cloud. These would have affected last-minute bookings, which people would be less willing to queue for in bad weather. These tickets are generally cheaper; so the theatres may have been selling full price tickets instead."

Solt refused to give individual theatres' takings. But last year's roll-call of landmarks included Billy Elliot at the Victoria Palace Theatre, selling its 3 millionth ticket. The Mousetrap, the world's longest-running show, entered its 59th year. In the week beginning 27 December the Wizard of Oz spin-off musical Wicked grossed more than £1m – the highest amount taken in a single week in London theatre history.

Meanwhile Clybourne Park took the largest single day's revenue at the Royal Court – £32,000 – during its 2010 run. The English National Ballet sold 96,292 seats in its six-week Christmas season at the London Coliseum, a company record. Mark Rylance's appearance in Jerusalem played to 91 per cent capacity, again breaking the theatre's box office records.

"The bottom line about this is quite simply Christmas is our busiest time of year. People don't take the risk of not getting home when the transport fails them. We were nearly £3.5m down on 2009 for the period over Christmas. But for lack of transport we would also be up on attendances as well," added Solt president Nica Burns.

Last year also saw a record-breaking 19,000 performances.