We used to be quite regular theatre-goers back in the day when they put plays on. We'd enjoy the summer rep season and any visiting productions. I'm not sure when it changed.
I'm tempted to blame lockdown but actually it was long before that. It seems the audience for drama is smaller than the audience for tribute acts.
I've just received the theatre's new brochure. Apart from The Mousetrap and a few small productions in the Arts wing it's all one night concerts, musicals, children's shows, and a few comedians.
But what really shook me from the brochure was the price of tickets. Even children's shows - like In the Night Garden and Fireman Sam - start at £15. How can anyone afford to take a family to that? Tickets for The Mousetrap start at £17 and go up to £37.
Actually, now I think about it, I thought The Mousetrap wasn't allowed to put on anywhere else while it's showing in London.
No, I've checked and I can't confirm that but this is the first touring production. The tour started in Nottingham last year commemorating its opening there in 1952 - when it starred Richard Attenborough among others. So it's a special 70th anniversary tour.
No, again, another site says there have been previous tours, so I give up. But it's definitely it's 70th anniversary.
We saw it in St. Martin's in the West End many years ago but I can't remember who did it!
4 comments:
I recently watched the 2022 movie "See How They Run" which is a whodunnit that takes place in the context of the stage play "The Mousetrap." It was quite good, I thought.
Theater costs are astonishing now, even for local productions. Back in the sixties, nostalgia here, we used to take the train in to New York, dinner, Broadway play, midnight train home, for under $100 total. It was a monthly expedition. Now you'd be lucky to do it for maybe $800! Way beyond most budgets.
Here in small town Texas we have the same situation. While we have a local amateur theatre production group, tickets start at $20 each. A lot for small town anything.
Lockdown certainly did no good for the performing arts. I'm sorry you (and others) are missing them.
For the past four years' productions of musicals, we have continued to buy season tickets for the six adult members of our local family, but Hunky Husband and I last attended a production in 2019 and very probably shan't ever again attend. Our unused tickets may be used by our great-grandsons (now young teenagers) or passed on to friends of daughter or granddaughter. In our case, the lockdown got us out of the habit of attending and we have come to the point in life where it is too much bother to get gussied up and drive into Wichita for a long sit.
Post a Comment