The Stage

Nunn fears recession may harm West End theatre

Published Friday 23 January 2009 at 16:40 by Matthew Hemley

Trevor Nunn has raised concerns that straight West End plays will lose audiences and money to musicals in the UK’s current economic state.

The director, speaking to The Stage this week, admitted he was “worried” about what will happen to theatre in the recession, claiming people will take theatre trips out of their budgets.

He said: “I am worried as anybody else that, with this massive downturn, people are going to say that what they can cut out of their budget is coming to the West End and going to the theatre. I think it will be a period of time where the populist things are what we rely on, and the more difficult and more serious things will have a lean time for a while. I guess that was exactly the same in the Great Depression and it was a long time before serious work started to come back.”

He added: “We already have a preponderance of musicals. It’s going to be a time for feel-good shows, I would say. But you never can tell - the public can surprise you.”

However, his concerns were not shared by director Michael Grandage or producer Cameron Mackintosh, who both spoke to The Stage at this week’s South Bank Show awards.

Mackintosh said he did not “entirely” agree with Nunn, and added: “I am looking at my theatres, and what I know of the West End is, a play like Enjoy, which is not Alan Bennett’s most famous play at all, is going to open to over £800,000 advance, which is amazing for this time of year. It’s not just musicals. I am pretty confident good shows are still going to attract good audiences.”

Grandage added: “The rumour is that theatre is always the last place to suffer in a recession. I am desperately hoping that’s true. When things get really low, people still want to have stories told to them.”

The Society of London Theatre releases overall box office figures for 2008 in the West End next week. See next week’s print edition of The Stage for more details.