Maureen Lipman: The cost of theatre tickets is absurd

Maureen Lipman has criticised the "absurd" cost of theatre tickets and has warned that musical theatre shows are squeezing out plays in the West End.

The actor suggested that last-minute tickets could be more reasonably priced, but said that system was still "unfair" and that affordable tickets should be "standard".

"People should not be charging £200 for a ticket. It is just absurd," she told The Stage at an event unveiling the full cast of Allegra, in which she is to star later this year.
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"To take your grandchildren to theatre at Christmas time costs about as much as your parents’ first mortgage."

The Stage’s latest West End ticketing survey placed the average most expensive ticket in London’s Theatreland at £162.61 – 5% more than the year before – with Roald Dahl drama Giant selling the most expensive ticket overall at £353.95. Last year, having recently introduced dynamic pricing, the Royal Opera sold tickets for a show for as much as £425, reportedly the most expensive ticket to have been offered by any subsidised performing arts organisation in the UK.

Top-price tickets elsewhere in the UK were £59.09 on average last year, but are still rising, according to The Stage.

Reflecting on the industry landscape, Lipman suggested the West End was essentially a "musical festival", with "very few original plays".

"There are an awful lot of theatres now. But if you’ve got a good play, there’s never a theatre, because it’s always got a musical in there."

"There’s a lot of theatres, but there’s not a lot of fringe theatres that are looking for new plays. In my era, that was what it was about. The Royal Court was what it was all about. And the Royal Court, in fairness, did do Giant, which has been a giant success."

She added: "There’s so many barriers if you’re a young playwright. It’s so hard. And people generally go into television. You can earn your spurs much easier than you can in the theatre."

Referring to Peter Quilter’s Allegra, in which Lipman plays a character with an irrepressible tendency to burst into song in public, the actor vouched for the importance of comedy and escapism for audiences during troubled times.

"We’re being fed [through our phones] a barrage of pretty frightening stuff with dictators dictating what happens to our lives and our livelihoods," she said. "Awful people. We’re at the whims of tyrants.

"So I think people do want to laugh. What is Jewish humour but reaction to prejudice?... To have a feel-good play with a bit of sing-song thrown in... I think the time is probably right."