{"id":2976,"date":"2024-03-06T10:27:37","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T18:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=2976"},"modified":"2024-03-06T10:27:40","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T18:27:40","slug":"on-the-high-price-of-west-end-tickets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2024\/03\/on-the-high-price-of-west-end-tickets\/","title":{"rendered":"On the high price of West End tickets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Guardian has a new editorial<\/a> up about how the price of a theatre ticket in London is too darn high. I imagine it would be possible to write a similar piece about theatre in any big North American city as well. But it makes some questionable claims and assumptions, so, here we go\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cTheatre\u2019s in a perilous state. My wife went the other day, it cost her nearly \u00a3200 \u2013 who could afford that?\u201d asked the actor David Harewood.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Well, for a start \u2026 your wife? Not to be (too) flippant about this, but a necessary condition for any presenter charging nearly \u00a3200 is that there are some people who can afford it and will actually pay it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Though a survey by The Stage newspaper<\/a> revealed that top prices for West End shows appear to be stabilising, with a 0.4% rise last year compared with a 20% surge in 2022 from pre\u2011pandemic levels, that still leaves the most expensive tickets averaging \u00a3141.37. Some popular shows cost nearly three times<\/a> as much.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But if our concern here is equity and access to live theatre, and I cannot stress this enough, the top prices, the most expensive prices, are not our concern. In fact, it is the existence of those expensive top prices that enable the theatre to have seats that are not so expensive. If there are some people, like David Harwood\u2019s wife, who will pay nearly \u00a3200 for a seat, let them, welcome them. They are necessary to cover the costs of theatre – price discrimination is essential in this business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

More worrying, for anyone concerned about access for young people and low earners (which means most workers in the entertainment industries), was a disproportionate hike in the cheapest tickets. These considerably outpaced inflation, rising by 12.8% to an average of \u00a325.44.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Again, I would take care in how prices are reported. I did a quick search online for live theatre around London, and there are many options to see quality live theatre at less than \u00a325.44. Will you see Mark Rylance on stage in these productions? No. But we cannot judge prices by what it costs to see the elite performers in the West End. That set of tickets is necessarily going to be very scarce, and you can\u2019t just say \u201clet\u2019s make all ticket prices \u00a310\u201d without causing an absolutely chaotic excess demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

In this unequal context, a decision by the producers of an upcoming production, Jeremy O Harris\u2019s Slave Play<\/a>, to make 30 tickets for each show available on a pay-what-you can basis, offers a limited but welcome corrective. They have also included two Black Out performances<\/a>, designed to allow an \u201call-black-identifying audience\u201d to watch the play \u2013 a challenging exploration <\/a>of race and sexuality \u2013 \u201cfree from the white gaze\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Black Out concept is not new to the UK. Since Harris introduced it on Broadway in 2019, it has been picked up by a couple of London theatres, much to the fury of the rightwing press<\/a>. Now Downing Street has weighed in<\/a> with its own condemnation. These performances challenge the existing demographics of the theatre which, pretty much wherever you look in the UK, are predominantly white<\/a>. But they also offer an interesting thought experiment. Those who complain that it is discriminatory \u2013 despite the abundance of regular performances \u2013 might bear in mind the market forces that last year, in the West End of London, piled all the inflationary pain on the most affordable tickets.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Having some tickets that are pay-what-you-can is fine. But a major production will need to sell some tickets too, and having high-end prices for high-end seats enables the provision of some pay-what-you-can tickets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Black Out, I don\u2019t react with fury or condemnation, but I might ask whether this is a very strategic way to shift the existing demographics of theatre, and whether this sort of separation of audiences by race is in any way a helpful direction to take. I cannot see how it could be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cross-posted on Substack: https:\/\/michaelrushton.substack.com\/p\/the-high-cost-of-some-live-theatre<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Guardian has a new editorial up about how the price of a theatre ticket in London is too darn high. I imagine it would be possible to write a similar piece about theatre in any big North American city as well. But it makes some questionable claims and assumptions, so, here we go\u2026 \u201cTheatre\u2019s in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-issues","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-M0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3779,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2025\/04\/on-the-hidden-economics-of-live-theatre\/","url_meta":{"origin":2976,"position":0},"title":"On the hidden economics of live theatre","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"April 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Freakonomics Radio has a new three part series on the economic landscape facing live theatre. Part One is here, and part two is here, which as a supporting act in an episode with Lin-Manuel Miranda, has me trying to coherently explain cost disease in the theatre, where it comes from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3794,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2025\/04\/even-more-on-the-economics-of-live-theatre\/","url_meta":{"origin":2976,"position":1},"title":"Even more on the economics of live theatre","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"April 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Freakonomics series on the economics of live theatre continues with this third and final episode, in which I talk about its value - no, not economic value: all the other kinds... https:\/\/freakonomics.com\/podcast\/will-3-summers-of-lincoln-make-it-to-broadway\/","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1310,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/05\/why-tax-breaks-for-commercial-theatre\/","url_meta":{"origin":2976,"position":2},"title":"Why tax breaks for commercial theatre?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"May 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Stage reports (and I repost the story in full here): Tax breaks for the theatre industry to be introduced this autumn could bring in \u00a3100 million for commercial theatre and \u00a320 million for touring productions in coming years, Arts Council England\u2019s chair PeterBazalgette has said. He said the initiative\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"coherent arts policy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Pound-Sterling-Progress.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1812,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2015\/02\/pay-what-you-decide-at-the-theatre\/","url_meta":{"origin":2976,"position":3},"title":"Pay-what-you-decide at the theatre","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"February 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Stage News reports on a trial run of pay-what-you-decide pricing at the regional theatre in Stockton, UK: The Pay What You Decide system is now in effect for all theatre productions at the arts centre for six months, following a trial on a one-man show at the venue. Too\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"time","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/The_Persistence_of_Memory-300x220.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2078,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2016\/08\/on-proper-attire-for-attending-the-theatre\/","url_meta":{"origin":2976,"position":4},"title":"On proper attire for attending the theatre","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"August 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"We have links to two stories today, Elisabeth Vincentelli asking that people try a little harder to look decent when they attend the theatre, much as they might be comfortable in their cargo pants and their Black Sabbath 1982 Mob Rules tour official t-shirt, and Alexis Kleinman in rebuttal -\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"you don't have to be rich","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/dressed-up.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/dressed-up.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/dressed-up.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1289,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/05\/does-theatre-make-you-happy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2976,"position":5},"title":"Does theatre make you happy?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"May 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Stage reports: \"Study finds attending plays feels as good as a pay rise\". The study was carried out at the LSE, funded by the UK Department for Culture Media & Sport. The research paper itself is an excellent piece, well-placed in the current scholarly literature on determinants of (self-reported)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"I feel like a million dollars!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/laugh460.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2978,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976\/revisions\/2978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}