The Society of London Theatres has reported an overall increase in ticket sales in the West End during the London 2012 Olympics, whilst admitting that the situation at individual theatres is mixed.
At SOLT's own TKTS booth in Leicester Square, ticket sales have been growing day-on-day, with 58% more tickets sold in the week commenting 30 July than in the previous week and 6 August showing the best Monday sales figures since April.
The situation is possibly helped by SOLT's Kids Week scheme running for the whole of August for the first time. Ticket sales through this scheme had already topped 100,000 before the end of last week compared with total sales of 73,426 for last year's scheme.
Andrew Lloyd Webber this week admitted that his predictions of a West End "bloodbath" during the Olympics were wrong. He said, "it is true that we’re not seeing the foreigners we normally get at this time of year.
"But what is happening is that a lot of families from all over the country are coming to see things like the equestrian events or the volleyball or this, that and the other, and saying, ‘What else can we go and see?’"
Outside the theatres, restaurants are struggling and, as we reported last week, Dress Circle mentioned the fall-off of custom during the Olympics as contributing to its decision to close after 33 years.