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Nica Burns, owner of the new Soho Place theatre, West End producer, and co-founder of Nimax Theatres, has said that keeping ticket prices low will be key for the survival of venues during the cost-of-living crisis.
In an interview with BBC News, Burns said: “Theatre has always proved itself very resilient. I agree with everything you say about the economic concerns, and food and rent is more important than everything else, but people save up to have something special that they can look forward to.”
She added: “My personal point of view within the theatre is we have to be careful about prices.”
The West End’s new theatre Soho Place recently opened with a production of ‘Marvellous’.
The venue has a curved auditorium which unifies both the audience and actors, with no seats more than six rows from the stage. Soho Place was developed by Derwent London along with architect Simon Allford, founder of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, engineering giant Arup and construction group Laing O’Rourke.
Burns said: “You can get a really good seat here [Soho Place] for £25 ($28/€29). And £25 isn’t beyond saving up for. You could say, what do you pay for a cup of coffee at Pret? So if you think about it that way, if you give up your coffee for a couple of weeks, you’ll get the price of a ticket.
“But I do think it is now time when we just have to be careful about not putting ticket prices up. And I would be very sad if it was an unaffordable activity for people. And also, for those that are canny, you can scout around for ticket prices on the net, and earlier in the week is always cheaper.”
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