Sales Surge at Birmingham Hippodrome
• Theatre Ticket Sales Buck Recession Trends
• Highest weekly sales ever recorded
Birmingham Hippodrome has announced record sales over the last week (15-22 Sept 2008). Almost 35,000 theatre tickets worth nearly £850,000 were purchased or reserved in just 8 days - a new record for the city’s leading venue since its award-winning redevelopment.
Despite a week of gloomy economic predictions, it appears that theatre audiences across the region are more enthusiastic than ever to secure tickets for the leading shows.
The recent new season launch included the Queen and Ben Elton musical We Will Rock You which comes to Birmingham Hippodrome in the summer of 2009 for 11 weeks. Other popular hits include Birmingham Royal Ballet’s perennial Christmas favourite The Nutcracker, and the return (by massive popular demand) of John Barrowman in a newly written pantomime, Robin Hood. Pantomime has enjoyed an enormous resurgence in popularity over the last few years, and Birmingham is proud to be the home of the biggest and best in the country.
Autumn sales for old favourites such as Blood Brothers have boomed since the announcement that X-Factor semi-finalist Niki Evans will take the lead role; and even shows for spring 2009 such as West Side Story and Witches of Eastwick saw dramatic increases.
Stuart Griffiths, Chief Executive of Birmingham Hippodrome commented: “We have been quite
taken aback by the popularity of the new season, and our new box office system was really put through its paces! At one point nearly 75% of our tickets were being purchased online. In this industry, you learn never to be complacent, but despite the calamities in the financial markets, thousands of people are making sure they still have a few treats in store over the next twelve months. They won’t be disappointed.”
Birmingham Hippodrome, the UK’s most popular theatre, is now reaching the end of its summer spectacular Mary Poppins. The Disney/Cameron Mackintosh stage production, based on the classic film and the book by PL Travers, has played to over 130,000 people.
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