News

Sunday openings for West End theatres?

Actors’ union Equity has backed a scheme proposed by the Society of London Theatre regarding Sunday openings for theatres in the West End. Proposals had originally been made sixteen months ago, with the Society looking to cash in on entire weekends with the ever increasing popularity of musicals and well-publicised productions in London, thanks in no small part to the recent wave of reality TV talent searches as well as marketing through social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace. Equity demanded more money for its members to work on Sundays and negotiations with casts and agencies have resulted in a minimum wage of £600 a week for actors if the Sunday opening plans go ahead.

Sunday matinees have been a popular practice at London’s Royal National Theatre and a number of regional repertory theatres such as Chichester Festival Theatre for many years, as changeable repertory schedules can easily eliminate a midweek performance in favour of a full weekend without causing too much confusion. However, Sundays have been on Broadway schedules since the mid-twentieth century, with the majority of houses closed earlier in the week, usually on the much quieter Mondays or Tuesdays. A number of the biggest shows Broadway shares with the West End, including Mamma Mia!, Avenue Q and Grease, play two performances on a Sunday at earlier times to their Saturday schedules, at 2pm and 7pm. Not only does this make Broadway theatre easier to access in people’s free time, it also allows for many theatre tourists to pack in up to five shows in one weekend, bringing in more customers in and generating a great deal more interest (and money) than earlier in the week.

If the West End follows suit, it would not be the first time a Broadway initiative has been carried across the pond. The majority of shows on Broadway open slightly earlier on a Tuesday or Wednesday night, usually at 7pm as opposed to 7:30 or 8pm. The rationale for this change in New York in the 1990’s was to make it easy for locals to catch a show and get home at a reasonable hour during the relatively tourist-bereft midweek nights. A couple of shows in London have followed suit in this scheme, such as Mary Poppins which recently closed at Soho’s Prince Edward theatre, and The Sound of Music at the London Palladium. Although this was again to partially boost numbers on slower nights, it was also to encourage local people to bring their children to family shows which were packed out at weekends.

Already in London, Disney’s The Lion King has made (if you’ll excuse the pun) a roaring success of its Sunday matinees at the Lyceum theatre, which are significantly busier than most shows are on Mondays when The Lion King is closed. The energetic Stomp at the Ambassador’s was the first show in London to play two shows on a Sunday, after achieving great success with its Sunday matinee before its transfer from the Vaudeville.

Now, with sixteen months of negotations between Equity, performers, management and the Societly of London Theatre drawing to a close, it looks to be only a matter of months before many, if not most, West End houses will follow suit.

Posted by Jack on Monday 6th October 2008 at 10:41AM