Television has always been thought a threat to more traditional forms of entertainment such as the theatre, but according to recent figures it’s become apparent that rather than harming attendances at the theatre, television is now aiding them.

Theatre audiences in 2007 rose by 10% on the previous year, with a total of 13.6 million. According to the research from the Society of London Theatre, West End theatre takings in 2007 rose by 18% on the previous year, almost hitting the £470 million mark.

Part of this success has been attributed to television, and the more less highbrow TV for that matter; reality television. Shows such as “Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and “I’d do Anything” on the BBC, and Simon Cowell’s ITV series for Grease brought the theatre into the mainstream public eye. This led to a fresh injection of theatregoers from the sort of audiences who would otherwise have never considered attending.

According to the figures, two-thirds of all tickets sold in 2007 were for musicals, and some of the most popular of those were thanks to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s BBC 1 series, and Simon Cowell’s ITV show.

So rather than killing off the theatre, could television reinvigorate it after all?

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Tags: london theatre

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 13th, 2008 at 11:10 pm and is filed under Theatre News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.