Farcical situation in Richmond

[hotjohn]

Posted: 2/12/12 at 3:08am

Richmond Theatre managed to sell out of programmes for Alan Aykbourn's Neighbourhood Watch before Saturday evening's show leaving many customers, myself included, angry and frustrated at the incompetence. Surely you print more programmes than you need to ensure that everyone has the chance of buying one. Think of the lost revenue from a full house unable to purchase programmes at £3 or £3.50 each, that's a few thousand quid. They were providing black and white photocopies of the cast list, taken from a programme, which were almost illegible and pretty useless. What a farce!

[devonian.t]

Posted: 2/12/12 at 3:22am

Actually for a limited run this is quite a difficult thing to judge.

Over the last couple of years, merchandise sales and bar takings at many regional theatre have dropped considerably. Some venues report programme sales down by at least 50%. Front of house staff are having to adjust to a new economic climate. As a result, it is a little understandable when a management is caught unawares by a sudden demand.

And though there is money to be made from programme sales, print costs are substantial, so managements are having to be wary to avoid too much waste.

At least the theatre was offering a photocopy- no use to collectors, I know- but at least they were trying to address the miscalculation.

[hotjohn]

Posted: 2/12/12 at 3:39am

Really, the photocopy is useless, you can barely make it out. Underestimating your print run is a false economy, the more you print the cheaper the unit cost and, if you know what you're doing, the advertising should cover most, if not all, of the print costs to say nothing of the ill-will towards those who paid for ads in the programme in the first place.

[zyx987]

Posted: 2/12/12 at 5:44am

Happened at the Manchester Opera House last night for All New People. I asked if I could have a cast list but they didn't seem to know what I was talking about.

Although, I expect it now at this theatre as it has happened twice before. Amazingly they have even sold out before the Saturday Matinee. I always think surely someone as big as ATG could take a hit on a few programs so they don't annoy their customers.

[Princeton Returns]

Posted: 2/12/12 at 6:12am

Happened to me at the Mack and Mable uk tour a few years ago, odd as it was hardly a sell out show

[abitoftap]

Posted: 2/12/12 at 6:49am

It happens in Norwich...New Adventures seems to suffer particuarly. Extremely annoying.

[devonian.t]

Posted: 2/12/12 at 7:24am

Like I was saying, it is increasingly hard to judge demand in the current climate.

And print costs are very high, so if you budget, cover the cost with advertising and sales, you're home and clear. If you end up with a couple of boxes of wasted print, the unit costs soon stack up.

Most managements would sooner cope with knowing they could have made another couple of hundred quid, rather than finding they have wasted what can amount to several thousand.

Obviously the theatre's photocopier hasn't been upgraded recently. Cut backs.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 2/12/12 at 11:26am

No John, its actually 75% of the house that is catered for program printing.
To me its one of the most infuriating experiences of theatre going especially when its a one nighter or very limited run.
I saw Debbie Reynolds on the last night of her two week London run. Programs were sold out by end of week one, I had to send fro one from LA.

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 2/12/12 at 2:51pm

I am pretty much on the fence with this one and can understand both positions, obviously its undesirable to have a couple of boxes stacked in a back office not being sold, however it is equally undesirable and frustrating going to a show and not being able to get a program and a poor photocopy, doesn't cut the mustard with me.

So if a producer has 10.000 programs printed,which cost 50p each to produce and goes on to sell them at £3.00, the cost to produce would be £5.000 but has the potential to make £25.000 profit, so say the producer has a 1000 left over, that would mean a £500 loss, however if the producer had a potential to sell a 1000 more, that would represent a extra £2.500 in the pocket, I know what I prefer.

So say the production will play 50 dates at various locations around the country, that would mean shifting 200 at each performance, but you only shift 180 at each performance and you are are going to end up a with a surplus of a 1000 programs, which would represent a loss of £500, but if you forecast you are going to have a surplus surely on the last 5 nights you can knock the price down to £2 a program, thus with a chance of shifting 900 extra programs and only losing £50

[turquoisefish]

Posted: 2/12/12 at 3:09pm

I saw South Pacific at The Mayflower and they were pushing the brochures as they were very low on programmes, I was there early so assume that they did run out. I chose the brochure as it still had a cast list (which I then realised was the London cast so probably different).

It is tricky to judge but I would imagine that the print costs are far lower than the retail price so it would still be worth it.

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 2/12/12 at 4:51pm

I would guess a big mark up is had on programs.

In America you get your program (playbill) free, so it can't be that expensive and playbill doesn't have that many adverts in it.

[zyx987]

Posted: 2/12/12 at 9:08pm

I guess a large majority of people book online now. So a simple solution would be to order the programme when you buy the ticket. They would then have some idea about how many they need to print.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 2/13/12 at 8:53am

A number of opera houses and concert halls around the world do that that very thing!

[hotjohn]

Posted: 2/13/12 at 6:52pm

A 20-page A5 programme can cost as little as 13p to print when producing 10,000. To break even you would only need to sell 450 copies - never mind the advertising revenue.