Touring productions generated £46 million in domestic box office income during 2023–24, Leicester Curve’s annual report has revealed.
The theatre reported its most successful year ever for work on tour, with more than 1.2 million theatregoers seeing Made at Curve productions and co-productions between April 2023 and March 2024.
These included 42nd Street at Sadler’s Wells, on tour in the UK and a limited season at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto, The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium and on tour, Grease at the Dominion Theatre and on tour and a revival of Hanif Kureishi’s My Beautiful Laundrette with the National Theatre’s theatre nation partnerships programme.
In Leicester, Curve welcomed more than 250,000 audience members to see performances and produced 11 shows under its Made at Curve banner including Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita. Across the year, Curve’s annual turnover was £14,808,108.
Curve continued its commitment to ensuring everyone is able to access theatre, with 27,000 participants engaging in its creative programmes work for schools, colleges, universities, community groups and artists.
The theatre also supported new work and local artists. More than 1,000 Midlands-based creatives, theatre-makers and practitioners took part in projects, development sessions and performances. Through the Curve Connect network, almost 500 local artists were able to access free rehearsal space.
Curve’s chief executive Chris Stafford and artistic director Nikolai Foster said, “2023–24 was another terrific year for Curve with programmes both on and off stage going from strength to strength. Against a backdrop of immense challenge with rising costs across the business, we’re delighted we were able to deliver a positive financial outcome for the year.
“While we might toast a successful year for Curve, we look to the future with caution: the continued increase in costs, standstill public funding and the demands of capital asset replacement will require careful navigation if our theatre is to continue to thrive into the future.”