Member Article

Newcastle Theatre Royal breaks records across the board in 'most successful year'

Newcastle Theatre Royal has reported its most successful year to date, increasing its turnover by more than £2.6m to a total of £12.4m for the year.

As detailed in the company’s Annual Report for 2014/15, the theatre has posted a number of record breaking figures despite a drastically reduced level of funding.

Between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2015 the Grade 1 listed Theatre welcomed 44 visiting theatre, opera, ballet and dance companies and presented 406 performances to 405,681 people. The attendance for the year was at 80% capacity, 21% above the national average.

With turnover rising to £12.4m, the not-for-profit Theatre supported 50 full time equivalent jobs across the North East and returned £338,652 to the Government in Tax, National Insurance and VAT.

The year 14/15 has been the company’s best ever in terms of ticket sales, with a total of £10.3m worth of tickets sold. This comes in the same year when it received a lower level of funding than ever before (and in 15/16 will receive no ongoing revenue funding).

Notable Box Office, big money generators included Cats, Top Hat, Dirty Dancing and The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time.

Chief Executive Philip Bernays said: “The year 2015/16 will be the first year we receive no funding from the City Council, so to have such a successful year in 14/15 is a hopeful indication of our strength and success in our new autonomy.

“We strive to excel in everything that we do in order to attract audiences in what is a very competitive market, and the word ‘Welcome’ continues to be our central mantra.

“We always try to give our customers the best experience without charging inflated prices – in fact the average price paid at the Theatre Royal in 2013/14 was £22.39 which is slightly below the national average for theatre tickets, and considerably lower than the price of a ticket for a Premier League football match!

“The report shows outstanding figures, which are testament to the quality of the programme, of the building and, most importantly, to the efforts of all our staff through the strength of teamwork and of the team.”

Over the course of 14/15 38,267 people bought tickets for the first time, and across the board the most popular show genre was Musicals (accounting for 32.7% of visitors), closely followed by the famous annual pantomime at 24.4%.

Highlights of the past year include the commencement of the Theatre’s major Back of House refurbishment - a renovation of backstage areas, including the Green Room and dressing rooms.

It is the first time the backstage area has been refurbished or decorated since 1988 and represents the second act in a major facelift, ‘Act One’ being the Theatre’s award winning £4.9m auditorium restoration which took place in 2011. The refurbishment is well on track and set to be complete by the end of August.