The show must go on... but at a premium as cost of the best West End tickets soars

‘Theatres always try to get the maximum yield... but producers here have misjudged the public mood’

TOP West End ticket prices have surged by a fifth compared with pre-pandemic levels, figures have shown.

Producers have been accused of “misjudging the mood” of the public after a survey revealed the dramatic rise in the cost of tickets.

In its latest ticketing survey, The Stage industry newspaper found that the average cost of the most expensive tickets have jumped to £140.85 in 2022, an increase of 21.3 per cent since 2019.

One leading theatre critic has said producers risked excluding from the theatre large numbers of people who cannot afford the prices.

Mark Shenton, a leading theatre critic and commentator, said: “Theatres were always trying to get the maximum yield out of the seats they’ve got, that’s the way the business works… but they discovered the notion of premium pricing, which is... inflating prices artificially, is one way to do that. Producers here have sort of misjudged the mood of the public backlash.”

The producers of the West End revival of Mike Bartlett’s play Cock faced criticism last month after offering tickets for £400, which it attributed to “supply and demand”, before reducing the top price to £175.

The producer of the hit sex comedy, which was performed at The Ambassadors Theatre, Covent Garden, defended the pricing at the time and said that 15 per cent of all tickets sold had been at £20 since the production went on sale.

But Mr Shenton said: “There was a huge Twitter backlash [against] producers in the West End, who will try to do any bang for their buck.”

He said the result would be fewer people of lower and middle incomes being able to enjoy British theatre.

“It’s the lower prices that get theatregoers in… high prices exclude a lot of people from going to the theatre, but as long as you have the low prices to match it it’s okay,” he said.

“My biggest concern is always the lower end – is it possible to get into the theatre at a cheaper price? And if it isn’t, then we have a problem for the future, because then people will stop going.”

The Stage, which has carried out its survey since 2012 with a two-year gap during the pandemic, said that the increase has been driven by new productions. However, the average cheapest ticket has seen a much smaller increase of 3.3 per cent since 2019, now at £22.56, it said.