Why are West End theatre ticket prices soaring?

A survey of West End theatre prices has found that ticket prices have rocketed, with top-priced seats for musicals reaching £300 and a 50% rise in the average cost of premium play tickets.

When top prices are “well into three figures” and many theatregoers are deciding that “trips to the theatre are strictly for Christmas and birthdays”, it’s easy to conclude that “greed” is “killing the West End”, said The Times.

Industry journal The Stage found that the average cost of premium West End tickets rose by 9.3% this year. Three plays – “Romeo & Juliet”, “Stranger Things” and “Player Kings” – are now offering tickets costing more than £200, the first time this milestone has been passed since the journal’s records began. For the well-reviewed “The Picture of Dorian Gray” even some obscured-view tickets were priced at more than £100.

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It’s “not all bad news for theatre lovers”, as there was a decrease in the average cheapest West End ticket prices, costing £28.58 – a 3.4% drop. Society of London Theatre president Eleanor Lloyd said that top-drawer ticket prices were not representative of the average theatregoer’s experience. “Almost a quarter of the tickets sold in the West End last year were for under £30, and just 13% were bought for more than £100,” she said.

The decision by the producers of “Slave Play”, to make 30 tickets for each show available on a pay-what-you-can basis is a “limited but welcome corrective”, said The Guardian. Theatre “relies on audiences” not only for income but “for the direction of the art form itself”, so any initiative to “broaden and diversify” audiences, and to “prevent drama from becoming the pursuit of a moneyed elite”, is a “service to all of us”.

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