An offering of offers….

I’ve spoken before here of the difficulties of finding out how shows are actually faring commercially, since unlike on Broadway, West End producers do not make their weekly takings public in the pages of Variety (or here in The Stage). But you can sometimes get a sense of what’s hot, and what’s not, simply by opening your eyes – not just in the time-honoured way that experienced actors are said to be able to do as they “count the house” from the stage or the other way around from the stalls if you’re a member of the audience that is actually already there, but simply by walking past the Half Price booth in Leicester Square and seeing what’s up on the boards.

But nowadays you don’t even need to leave your armchair to do that – the Society of London Theatre’s website (www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk) gives a daily listing of the offerings there, and I’m surprised to see that even Dame Maggie Smith (the West End’s most bankable star, besides Judi Dench) is “boothing” at the moment for previews of her new play The Lady from Dubuque. Of course, to take advantage of the Half Price booth, you still have to turn up in person, and on the day itself, so you still need an element of flexibility to your planning should you want to do so.

However, for those who prefer to plan ahead, lots of theatres are offering cut-price deals to readers of particular papers. This week alone, I’ve seen offers for Porgy and Bess (at £35 instead of the advertised £55, in Metro), the National’s production of The Man of Mode (at £20, in the Evening Standard), Underneath the Lintel (£20 in Metro), Stomp (£20, in Metro) and the ENO’s production of The Gondoliers (£30 in the Standard). Clearly theatre tickets are like airline seats: they’re perishable goods, which if they go unoccupied lose all their revenue earning potential the moment the curtain goes up. So it makes sense to sell them off cheaper closer to the time. But nowadays there is such a plethora of offerings, we are heading to a situation akin to Broadway where regular or sensible punters will simply wait for offers to be made before booking.