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Roll up, roll up: we are staging the Lister experiment

Now we will see whether cinema-priced theatre will attract a new audience

David Lister
Saturday 12 October 2002 00:00 BST
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Theatre producers make plenty of noises about wanting to extend the audience base: they choose new writers; they cast stars from television soaps; they allow audiences to bring drinks in with them; they even, in the case of the National Theatre, reconfigure the auditorium to make it more youth friendly.

I believe there is a simpler answer. High ticket prices, I am convinced, are the biggest obstacle to young people going to the theatre. And I have campaigned in this column for making theatre prices the same as cinema prices one day a week to see what happens. Audiences, as I know from feedback I have received, share my feelings about high prices, not least for children, who rarely get reductions as they do in cinemas.

Examples of discontent are legion; the latest comes from a colleague who had to pay £102 for three tickets (no reduction for children yet again) for Stomp at the Vaudeville Theatre in London. Booking fees were charged even though he booked directly with the theatre and, the three-figure sum notwithstanding, the views were restricted, despite assurances to the contrary. But that's par for the course in the rip-off West End.

Now, I'm delighted to say, a top West End producer is to take up my idea of cinema-priced tickets for theatre. Victories are rare in persuading producers to reduce prices, so I'm very pleased that the producer in question, Paul Roberts of Phil McIntyre Productions, is brave enough to experiment with the idea. For two of his shows, both high-profile musicals, he is going to set aside a date and offer best available seats at £11.50, the cost of a cinema ticket in Leicester Square. The two West End shows are the Queen musical We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre (box office 020 7413 1713) and the Madness musical Our House at the Cambridge Theatre (box office 0870 890 1102). The dates that cinema-priced tickets will be on sale will be the 7.30 performance on Monday 2 December for We Will Rock You, and the 5pm performance on Friday 6 December for Our House. These are two shows that certainly appeal to young audiences, who should be further attracted by this one-off reduction in seat prices.

It is an interesting move by Roberts, as he stands to lose money from it in the short term, even if it is successful. Perhaps that is why he has decided to shift the blame and call it the Lister Experiment. Ticket-buyers wanting seats at cinema prices should quote the Lister Experiment when they call the box offices. But I am willing to risk the blame because I believe the lure of low-priced tickets will indeed attract a new audience and, I hope, persuade Roberts to extend the experiment to more dates. Then, if cinema-priced tickets are offered for, say, Mondays when theatres traditionally get small audiences, a new, young audience will come, and producers won't be out of pocket. This move is in everyone's interest – producers, actors and, most importantly, audiences.

Ticket prices are talked about all too rarely. Many theatre critics don't even know what their seats cost as theatre managements are canny enough never to put the cost of their seats on the critics' tickets. But it is only by tackling high prices that those same managements can woo a new audience. If other producers follow Paul Roberts' lead, we will, I am sure, see the cinema audience take a chance with live entertainment; and we might see the age profile of theatre audiences change radically.

* The Royal Ballet has wasted no time in reorganising its repertoire after the departure of Ross Stretton as artistic director. It now has a more appealing look, and contains more of a tribute to Sir Kenneth MacMillan for the 10th anniversary of the death of the choreographer and former head of the company.

Stretton's departure has been accompanied by more than its fair share of gossip. But I can now reveal some of the steps dancers took to hasten the departure of a man who managed to make himself unpopular with a number of them in a short time. One of those involved has written to me with a detailed account of the dancers' protest.

The Royal Ballet company members voted on three options. The first would defer renewal of Stretton's contract; the second said there was no objection to renewing his contract provided managerial problems were addressed; the third option said there was no problem with either Stretton or management in general.

The result was as follows: option one, to defer renewing Stretton's contract, received 56 votes; option two, to renew his contract but address managerial problems, attracted 26 votes; and option three, a jolly hurrah for Stretton and the management, got eight votes. Stretton can take some comfort that there wasn't a vote of no confidence, but no comfort that the option to give him wholehearted support attracted a derisory number of votes.

Think that's complicated? You should try a pas de deux.

d.lister@independent.co.uk

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