Sluggish ticket sales leave theatre group suffering long Covid
A LOUGHBOROUGH amateur theatre group is appealing for support as it struggles to sell tickets for its latest performance.
Christchurch Theatre Club (CTC) is staging Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame The Musical at the Town Hall from May 3-7.
But ticket sales are worryingly sluggish as the group struggles to regain its pre-pandemic popularity.
As the country went into lockdown in March 2020, the CTC had to cancel its production of well-loved musical Chicago.
In January this year the group returned with Shrek the Musical, but the emergence of the Omicron variant hit ticket sales.
As they prepare to stage Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a spokesman said “the threat of lowticket sales has never been this worrying”.
The spokesman added: “As an amateur theatre company, we receive no external funding, we rely solely on membership fees and ticket sales to finance our productions, and what many of our audience members don’t realise is that we don’t receive every penny from each ticket sold.
“When staging a show, local amateur theatre groups must pay a licence fee of about 16 per cent of every ticket sold. This is on top of the £1.25 per ticket paid to the venue as a booking fee. So, for each £20 ticket sold, CTC only receive £15.55.
“Over the past 10 years we have seen production costs rise considerably. Every aspect of a production comes at a cost, including costumes, wigs, make up, scenery, props, lighting, sound, orchestra, publicity, advertising, rehearsal space and performance venues, and in all areas the prices have increased.
“People may be surprised to learn that our last production, Shrek the Musical, cost a staggering £47,326 to stage.
“This means that audience support, and ticket sales, is the difference between us breaking even and being able to carry on producing high quality productions or making a significant financial loss which makes the society unsustainable.
“As a society we realise that we are going through unprecedented times, with rising living costs, and the pandemic still affecting many. We also understand that The Hunchback of Notre Dame is not a particularly wellknown title for a musical, but we would urge anyone who has an interest in theatre and supporting local groups to put their faith in us and, if they can, purchase a ticket to what is going to be a stunning theatrical event.
“We have a assembled a fantastic cast of CTC regulars who will be performing alongside an incredible choir made of 16 local performers and a stunning 15-piece orchestra.
“With music and lyrics by two giants of musical theatre, Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Little Shop of Horrors, Sister Act) and Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, The Prince of Egypt, Pippin), this show features a score bound to impress.
“The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a timeless classic, a story of love and hope that we know our audiences will be wowed by.
“CTC have been a stable part of the local community for the past 52 years and we hope to continue staging productions for the community for the next 52 years, but without audience support our future looks very uncertain.”