West End ticket prices: Why Jamie Lloyd should be applauded for raising the issue

Theatreland is at war. And that is very unusual. Solidarity and mutual backslapping have always been the hallmarks of West End theatre. Dog does not eat dog, and impresario has never in my memory eaten another impresario. Until now.

A couple of weeks ago the acclaimed young director, and head of his own theatre company, Jamie Lloyd, told The Stage newspaper at the opening of his production of Dr Faustus that too many producers were exploiting celebrity casting by charging upwards of £100 for tickets. He went on to describe as "corrupt" the practice of offering premium price tickets without subsidising reduced price ticketing schemes.

‘Corrupt’! That’s not pulling any punches. Now, some of the West End’s most successful producers have hit back in the same journal. Edward Snape, producer of the Kenneth Brangah season of plays, called Lloyd’s comments “misguided and insulting”.

Michael Harrison, producer of the award-winning Gypsy said: “The problem is, it's getting more and more expensive to produce in the West End and stars will only commit for very short periods. If demand is there then it's obvious revenues are going to be maximised by producers to stand a chance of recouping and hopefully making a profit. It's not fashionable to say so but making a profit now and again is actually important for investors.”

And the biggest name of all, Sonia Friedman, producer of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hamlet, Funny Girl, the upcoming Harry Potter play and much else, added that she had a “passionate commitment to engaging, inspiring and exciting new and younger audiences to experience the thrill and wonder of live theatre and storytelling. We have helped pioneer accessible pricing in the commercial sector and will always be dedicated and resolute in doing so as long as my company is producing theatre,” she said.

Not everyone agrees that everything is hunky dory when it comes to seat prices. No less a name than the actress Juliet Stevenson says: “I don't consider that I can afford to go to the West End and I am a lucky, privileged person who earns well, relatively speaking. I totally agree it's extremely divisive and it's a great shame because theatre was never intended to be for the rich.”

I’m with Stevenson and Lloyd. As I have argued for many years, theatre has become way too expensive. The iniquitous practice of booking fees (curiously not mentioned by any of those producers) alienates many theatregoers. The relatively new practice of hugely expensive ‘premium’ seats are yet another way of putting theatre beyond the reach of most people. And there’s much more. At theatre after theatre we are now being charged compulsory ‘restoration’ fees. Why are theatregoers having to pay towards the renovation of buildings owned by billionaires? Will we be offered a share of the profits?

Yes there are, thank goodness, some cheap seats, as referred to by Sonia Friedman, to attract newer audiences and help less affluent theatregoers. She should be congratulated for offering them for Benedict Cumberbatch’s hot ticket of Hamlet. But other practices are less worthy of applause. Previews should, in my opinion, never be charged at full price. They are previews. The play is still being worked on. But for the Cumberbatch Hamlet, they were indeed charged at full price.

Of course, theatre producers are entitled to make a profit. And people like Friedman have immeasurably added to the capital’s theatre scene. But the general price of theatre tickets has become unacceptably high, turning what should be the most inclusive of art forms into a rich person’s pastime. What particularly saddens me is that all over the West End, the balcony (the ‘gods’), traditionally the dirt cheap area of a theatre that the poorest can afford, is now also often £30 or more.

A light has to be shone on ticket prices. Where the estimable Jamie Lloyd made a mistake was in using the word ‘corrupt’. That implies fraud, and there has been no fraud. What there has been is the increasing use of a series of distasteful practices, from booking fees and restoration levies to premium seats, hikes in balcony prices, and high seat prices generally, deterring family audiences, young people and new theatregoers.

Ironically, producers would, I believe, still be able to make those profits if they lowered all prices, at least on one night a week to get in those new audiences. They might find a whole generation of new theatregoers keen to come. That was precisely what happened some years ago when I suggested such a scheme for Monday nights (usually the quiet night in West End theatre) and a leading producer took up the idea.

So in the present Theatreland dispute, I applaud Jamie Lloyd for raising the issue of ticket prices, something far too rarely mentioned by theatre professionals. My only regret is that he didn’t go nearly far enough.