British Theatre Before & After Covid

We’ve just published a new report entitled British Theatre Before & After Covid, an analysis of how British changed between 2019 (the last year before Covid hit and all the theatres closed twice) and 2023 (a couple of years into the recovery). We’ve partnered with SOLT and UK Theatre who’ve allowed us access to the aggregate box office data of their members, allowing us to say what was put on in British theatre in the two years, for how long, how many people came to see them, and what they paid.

This is a massive dataset and this is the first time anyone has done a truly deep dive to produce a granular picture of how British theatre - sometimes subtly, sometimes strikingly — has changed after the longest closure since the seventeenth century.

Here are some headlines:

  • British theatres put on fewer shows (about 14.5% fewer) and there were fewer performances, but attendances went up considerably (just under 7%). This means that auditoriums were fuller than in 2019.

  • Box office slightly declined in real terms, though this is mainly because ticket prices (or at least the prices people actually paid for them) declined considerably in real terms.

  • The repertoire shifted in subtle ways. There was a move away from Drama (old and new plays, devised shows) and towards the Musical — particularly towards the New Musical, which was a striking success story in the 2023 data.

  • There is evidence that New Work (i.e. everything that isn’t a revival) had declined quite sharply in the second half of the 2010s but it bounced back in 2023, once again making up more than half of all productions.

  • Productions of new plays declined quite considerably, though the new plays that were put on had longer runs in fuller theatres.

  • The revival seemed to be in decline after Covid, with the number and range declining and narrowing. British theatre’s approach to the classical period (everything before 1850) is very largely just Shakespeare, and even the performed Shakespearean canon shrank between the two years.

  • Adaptations loomed larger in the repertoire (in part because of the growth of the musical which is very often an adaptation of something or other) and did better business in larger theatres.

  • London has always dominated the national theatre landscape but that dominance inc increased between 2019 and 2023.

  • Between 2013 and 2014, the proportion of plays produced that were written by women stayed at a stubborn 31%. We’re happy to report that this glass ceiling has been shattered and plays by women rose to over 40% of all new plays produced in 2023.

We’ve already had some good coverage and feedback, including the following:

You can read the report HERE.