The Stage

Blackpool Grand suffers worst summer in 25 years

Published Thursday 21 September 2006 at 12:45 by Alistair Smith

Blackpool’s light entertainment industry is facing meltdown and must embrace radical change if it is to survive, leading figures have warned, as the town’s Grand Theatre reports its worst summer season in the last 25 years.

The Grand is expecting to record a £200,000 loss for this financial year because of what has been a disastrous summer period for UK light entertainment’s flagship venue, which hosts the National Theatre of Variety. Blackpool council has been forced to increase its grant to the theatre from £66,300 to £100,000 in a bid to help ease the burden.

Grand theatre manager Paul Iles told The Stage: “It is nowhere near what it was last year or the year before. The decline has been happening over the last decade but has been that much steeper this year.

“It has been indubitably the worst summer season in the 25 years the Blackpool Grand Theatre Trust has run the venue. This marks the last rites of the English seaside resort as we know it. It’s not going to be possible to run a 12/13 week summer season from now on,” he added. “It’s a one-night stand town in the future.”

Iles explained that while business was picking up ahead of the illuminations period for current show Variety at Night, and the Grand was continuing to perform well over the winter season, a radical rethink was necessary ahead of next summer. He suggested that there needed to be more cooperation between the town’s venues to provide an overview of theatre activity.

Experienced Blackpool producer Duggie Chapman, who presented two shows at the Grand this summer, said that this season had been the worst he had ever experienced and he believed the market had dropped to around 50% of what it had been in previous years.

Many are pinning their hopes for Blackpool’s entertainment sector on the town being successful in its bid to host the UK’s first super-casino. However, Chapman said that even if Blackpool is successful he felt by the time it was up and running, the decline would already be complete. He added: “I don’t know how much the casino is going to help. I think the damage will be done in the next four years, while they’re building it. I don’t think I’ll have a summer show in Blackpool next year. You just can’t afford to take the risk. It’s not like it was.”

Earlier this year, light ents producer Qdos pulled its planned summer show at the Grand - Cannon and Ball in Big Bad Mouse - citing concerns over Blackpool’s “current economic climate”. Prior to axing the run, Qdos had staged the previous 19 summer productions at the venue.

“I’m just relieved we didn’t go this summer,” said Qdos managing director Nick Thomas. “We took a commercial decision and it proved to be the right one but I take no pleasure in saying that. It is an incredibly difficult time for them.”

He added that he was meeting with representatives from the Grand in October to “brainstorm” future ideas for the venue and to see how the sector could move forward.