Is the Financial Success of West End Musicals, a Positive Trend Essay

Is the Financial Success of West End Musicals, a Positive Trend - Essay Example The musical shows in the West End are running to packed houses, garnering optimal revenues. However, when ‘sources’ of those revenues are viewed critically, it provides a doubtful picture. Heightened revenues are not due to high attendance rates, but instead due to high ticket prices. In addition, the quality of the shows leaves much to be desired, as most of the shows are adaptations of films and music albums, without original works. Toeing the line of Michael Billington’s January 2011 Guardian article, This West End theatre boom is not all good news, this article will discuss why the financial success of West End Musicals is not a positive trend, as it is based on ambiguous revenue patterns and also because of the lack of originality and quality in majority of the shows. The total revenues at the theatres in London’s West End have been increasing consecutively for the past eight years, with revenues reaching ?528m in 2011, which is an increase by 3 percen t when compared with the 2010 figures. â€Å"Total revenues at the box office rose by three per cent on 2010’s figures to reach ?528,375,874 last year, said the Society of London Theatre (SOLT).†1 These positive financial figures showcase how West End particularly musical shows are receiving good crowds, considering the non-favourable business environment in the post-recession period and due to the cold climes. Mark Rubinstein, President of the Society of London Theatre, validates this point by stating, â€Å"Despite the prevailing rigours of the economic climate, theatre-goers have acted with their feet and wallets and shown just how much they value a trip to one of our world-class shows.†2 The financial success can be attributed to the popularity of certain musical shows. These shows already had good expectation levels before their staging in the West End. Then, when the performed shows were able to fulfil the expectations of the spectators, it became hits, wi th some even becoming mega hits, setting the cash registers ringing. Some of the shows, which become hugely popular, leading to favourable financial figures are Jerusalem, Much Ado About Nothing, The Ladykillers, Frankenstein, One Man, Two Guvnors, Yes, Prime Minister, Noises Off, Richard III, as well major productions like The Wizard of Oz, Shrek, Matilda and Ghost. â€Å"The Society of London Theatres (Solt) said the arrival of mega-musicals such as The Wizard of Oz, Shrek, Ghost and Matilda meant there were more weeks than usual when big theatres were closed as the shows were installed†3. In addition to these recent hit shows, the already successful shows like Les Miserables, which is now in its 26th year at the West End, also attracted large crowds. Although, the popularity of these shows cannot the discounted, as people loved all these issues, the question that arises is, did this popularity completely translated into revenues or whether the higher revenues is only due t o the higher popularity and the resultant higher attendance? The answer to these questions are not a resounding â€Å"Yes† because other factors like the increased ticket prices contributed to the higher revenues, and even to the sizable jump in revenue percentage from 2010. This can be understood from the attendance figures for the year 2011, because the attendance has come down from the 2010 numbers, although the revenues were in the opposite direction. â€Å"The overall attendance fell by approximately two per cent to 13,915,815 across 52 commercial and not-for-profit houses.†4 This raises the pertinent question that when the attendance figures fell, how come the revenues could increase. That could be mainly attributed to the increased ticket prices, which have been steadily increasing through the whole of 2011, and which will be dealt in a detailed manner in the next section of the article. The other related factor, which implies that increase in revenues is not en tirely due to attendance, is the increased VAT rates by the government. That is, the