British Theatre Consortium Releases Report on British Theatre Before and After Covid

Ten years ago, the British Theatre Consortium produced a report, British Theatre Repertoire 2013, based on the most extensive and detailed dataset ever compiled on British theatre's repertoire. The most striking finding was that, for the first time since records began, new work had overtaken revivals in the British Theatre repertoire.

A year later, BTC produced a further report, British Theatre Repertoire 2014, confirming that 2013 had not been a blip, and new work continued to dominate British theatre.

Now BTC has produced a report on British Theatre Repertoire in 2019, the last full year before the Covid shutdown, and 2023, the first full year after theatres reopened. Based on aggregated and anonymised data from 139 commercial, not-for-profit and subsidised theatres, in London and throughout the country, the report's Ten Key Findings are:

• Between 2019 and 2023, the number of productions and performances declined but attendances rose.
• Musicals increased and Drama declined.
• New Work declined in the 2010s but formed a larger part of the repertoire after Covid than before. By 2023, the majority of theatre productions consisted of new work once again.
• New Musicals increased considerably after lockdown.
• There were fewer New Plays but those there were had longer runs in fuller theatres.
• Revivals declined. Shakespeare dominated classical revivals, with a surprise winner in both years.
• The share of adaptations in the repertoire increased. After Covid, adaptations did better business in larger theatres.
• The share of plays by women increased substantially.
• The capital's already overwhelming share of national theatre activity increased.
• Contrary to popular perception, real-terms ticket prices fell between 2019 and 2023.

The report concludes: "The UK appears to have survived what could have been a catastrophe for theatre. Our theatres have pulled off a minor miracle in finding ways to bring audiences back to the theatre quickly, and in very large numbers. How they did this is beginning to become clear, as this report has shown, and shows patterns of commercial-mindedness that may be described as simultaneously bold and cautious. It will be vital to continue to track these patterns in subsequent years to see if we are seeing a sustained shift in the pattern of the UK's theatre repertoire".

The Ten Key Findings are outlined in greater detail in the Headlines section of the Report. Striking and/or surprising facts and conclusions include:

1) Between 2019 and 2023, the numbers of professional, live theatre productions dropped sharply (by 14.5%) and performances marginally (by 3.6%), but attendances increased noticeably (by 6.8%). Either side of lockdown commercial theatres increased their lead over NPOs in performances, attendances and box office. The number of shows running for more than five years increased substantially, from 19 to 34. 

2) In 2019, Musicals accounted for a third of all performances, half of all attendances, and almost three-fifths of all box office income. In 2023, those proportions rose to two-fifths of all performances, over half of all attendances, and approaching two-thirds of all box office income. As a proportion of theatre, drama declined.

3) Between 2014 and 2019 New Work declined from over half (62%) of all theatre productions but in 2019 it was 49%. However, New Work rose on all measures between 2019 and 2023. As a proportion of Drama (i.e. not including Musicals), New Work rose from just over 60% to 65.1%, only 2% lower than it was in 2014. It was concluded that the rise between 2019 and 2023 is "a remarkable success story for new work". But because of the considerable drop during 3 the 2010s, "the rise in new work between 2019 and 2023 is less flourishing than fightback". 

 4) In the biggest new work story, 37% of musicals were new in 2019, rising to just over 50% in 2023. 

 5) Productions of New Plays declined, but those plays that did get produced had longer runs and made more at the box office. There were fewer original new plays for adults (i.e. not adaptations, translations or children's plays) but these plays proved more successful in filling seats (77% of capacity) than any other form of new writing, including musicals. "The sharp decline in numbers of new play productions will be grounds for concern", but the success of original new plays in particular shows that "the new play is, therefore, holding its own."

6) Revivals declined in terms of productions but outperformed new work in attendances and box office. The proportion of postwar revivals increased at the expense of plays from earlier periods (Arthur Miller leading in 2019 and coming equal first with Agatha Christie in 2023). The substantial narrowing of the range of postwar playwrights produced "shows evidence of retrenchment, with fewer writers being revived, fewer plays by women being given new productions, and a greater reliance on a tiny handful of big-name writers".
 Shakespeare dominates classical revivals (89% in 2023), with Macbeth leading the pack in both years for the most popular Shakespeares in both years).

7) Old and new Adaptations rose on all measures, having longer runs in larger theatres and performing better at the box office. Absolute numbers of new adaptations declined, but adaptations almost doubled their attendance and real-terms box office. By contrast, productions of translations declined sharply, by 60%, though the translations produced proved popular with audiences. 

8) Previous surveys (2008-2009, 2013-2014) had found "that -stubbornly, unchangingly - over those 11 years, Plays by Women accounted for only 31% of all new plays". During the 2010s that changed. By 2019, the number of new plays written by women had increase to 39.4% and by 2023 to 41.7%. In 2019 women were performed in larger auditoria than men. But the number of performances of plays by women, along with attendances and box office, declined by 3 percentage points between the two years.

9) London increasingly dominates The National Theatre landscape. After lockdown lifted, London represented 22.6% of drama productions, but 60% of performances, 69% of attendances and 80.1% of all income. Nonetheless, there is clear evidence that "the non-London regions and nations have had some striking success in attracting attendances and income in the post-Covid period".  

10) Contrary to popular belief, real-term Ticket Prices fell between 2019 and 2023, with the biggest reductions being for operas and musicals. And, again against common perceptions, audiences are not booking later than they used to.