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£55 a ticket?
Dateline: 22nd September, 2002
The news in "The Stage" that the producers of We Will
Rock You are considering a ticket price of £55 is not confirmed.
Whether it's true of this show or not, prices of £50 or more cannot
be far away. There have been rumours for some time that, when The
Producers finally arrives in the West End, tickets will be £50.
Add to these prices the ticket agents' mark-up (and unless you can
get into the West End to book at the theatre, you have to use a booking
agent) and in no time at all a theatre night out for two in the West
End (tickets, interval drinks, travel, a meal) is going to cost well
in excess of £200, far more than someone on the minimum wage earns
in a week and a goodly percentage of the income of those on the national
average income.
Why? We Will Rock You may well be an expensive show to put on,
but it's got a captive audience - the millions of Queen fans who will
make it an essential part of their trips to the capital. I spoke a couple
of days ago to a dyed in the wool fan who said she would quite happily
have turned round and gone back in again, having watched it once. Would
she pay the extra amount being bandied about? Definitely.
Apart from the dedicated fans, there are many more of those for whom
no holiday in London is complete without a West End show who will choose
WWRY rather than another because they know they're going to like
the music.
In fact, the show has already broken all box office records at the
Dominion, having taken over £1m in just ten days during the summer.
And the ridiculous thing is that, even allowing for inflation, you
would have paid less to see Queen on-stage, even when they were at the
height of their popularity, that you will now to see a show based on
their music.
While producing a show based on the music of a band like Queen is not
exactly a licence to print money, it's the nearest you'll get if you're
not Lloyd Webber or Cameron Mackintosh. In fact, it's probably better
than being either of those luminaries, for they've had their failures
- remember The Beautiful Game and Martin Guerre?
The words "greed" and "exploitation" spring to
mind.
NEXT>> The
Future of Theatre Lies in the Cheap Seats
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