Venues aim for full house as theatres gamble on playing their cards right

WHEN Scarborough’s Open Air Theatre was relaunched in May, 2010, there was a palpable sense of excitement.

The Queen was given the best seat in the house as she officially opened the theatre in front of a packed and enthusiastic crowd who had gathered to welcome her and the Duke of Edinburgh. The audience was then treated to mesmerising performances from classical music superstars Jose Carreras and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, accompanied by the Opera North Orchestra.

It was about as grand an opening as they come, yet despite the huge fanfare surrounding its launch, the venue has failed to reach its 6,500-seat capacity on a number of occasions despite a host of big names appearing on the stage, including Sir Elton John.

Paul Gregg, chairman of Apollo Leisure, which operates the £3.5m venue, blames a lack of public support despite offering low ticket prices, with a concert by pop group N-Dubz filling just 60 per cent of the venue.

“We’ve held a variety of concerts and events, some of which have hugely successful and some of which have been disappointing in terms of crowd numbers. Finding the right audience for the right event has been the most difficult challenge because the content has always been good,” he says.

The operational costs in running the amphitheatre, which dates back to 1932, are expensive and Mr Gregg says the venue has held different kinds of events in an effort to pull in the crowds. In 2010, a giant TV screen was brought in to show football matches from the World Cup in South Africa.

“It was a bit of an experiment, there was free admission and we had 6,500 in to watch the last England match, but the security and health and safety costs were about £7,500 and it was costing us £10,000 a night to stage,” says Mr Gregg, who adds that making the venue available to more community groups is an ongoing problem. “How do we get more community groups involved? That’s a big challenge because health and safety requirements from the council are about £5,000 a night and it’s very difficult for a high school or a church to pay that kind of money. But we are keen to increase community use this summer and we are working with the council on this.”

There is a huge demand for live theatre, music and comedy in the UK right now, but having an impressive building with a rich history doesn’t guarantee bums on seats. In Harrogate, theatre bosses have heralded a deal to take over the town’s troubled Royal Hall as the biggest shift in the district’s cultural life for 50 years. It comes after concerns had been growing over the future of the Royal Hall because of a lack of events at the historic venue, which was officially reopened by Prince Charles in 2008 following a hefty £10.7m refurbishment.

The plans are due to see the running of the Royal Hall taken on by bosses at Harrogate Theatre, and a detailed programme of events for this spring has been unveiled which includes a series of high-profile shows, with comedian Dara O’Briain and musician Bob Geldof among the acts confirmed at Frank Matcham’s masterpiece. It is hoped this will boost the fortunes of the Grade II listed building after it emerged last year that taxpayers have been footing a daily bill of £1,000 for the venue, which staged just 57 events during 2010-11.

Howard Hughes, administrator of the Royal Hall Restoration Trust, says venues like the Royal Hall usually need some kind of public subsidy in order to keep going.

“If you pay £25,000 for a symphony orchestra and you have a 1,000-seat venue then you will barely cover the cost of the performance never mind heating, lighting and the rest of the little costs that all add up,” he says. “So some big events can end up losing you money, but what you hope is that the smaller events will make a profit because your fees are lower. You can either charge the promoter a flat fee, take a share of the box office profits or the organisation running the venue can put on an event itself and take on the risks involved. There are a lot of factors that influence how much of a subsidy a venue requires.”

Leeds City Varieties is another cultural gem that has enjoyed a hefty makeover in recent times. One of just four surviving music halls in the UK (and the only one that runs as a music hall full time with a continuous programme of events), it reopened last September following a £9.9m revamp. It has been at the heart of the city’s cultural life for well over a century with many of the world’s greatest entertainers having trodden its boards, including Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harry Houdini.

General manager Peter Sandeman says although the painstaking refurbishment was expensive it was crucial for this famous old venue not only to survive, but flourish. The venue had what he calls “operational issues”, including a shortage of ladies loos and lifts, which have now been addressed.

“You have to be open to new ideas. For instance, we’re starting to hold weddings here and we’ve already had the first one. People are looking for something different and we think we can offer that, but it’s something we couldn’t do before because we didn’t have disabled access.”

Even though the capacity has dropped (there are 64 fewer seats than before) he is confident the improvements will pay dividends. “We have a loyal following with average attendances at 66 per cent, which is above the national average, and we think we are going to see an increase in attendance figures.”

The City Varieties has carved out a successful reputation for one-night only shows which means there are a lot of deals to be done with agents and promoters.

“We’ve made a niche out of the Stand-up comedy market and comedians love playing here. But you have to keep an eye on changes in public taste and react to what is popular. We have comedians who come here one year and there are just 50 people in the audience, but when they come back the following year it’s sold out.

“You have to be canny, you might want a big name star to come but sometimes you have to say ‘no’ because the venue isn’t right for that particular show. It’s all about getting the right balance and doing a good show that you also think can make some money.”

The City Varieties is continuing its fund-raising efforts and has named its auditorium after the late Jimi Heselden after receiving a significant contribution from the fund which carries on his philanthropic work. It has also embraced social media sites to reach a younger, more technologically-savvy audience – something that worked well last year when Michael McIntyre announced on Twitter he was doing three warm-up gigs which sold out in an instant.

“Our core business is entertainment and getting the product right on stage and sometimes that means taking risks to develop new audiences,” says Mr Sandeman.

“We had Opera Della Luna here for the first time last year. It didn’t sell out but the audience loved it and hopefully they will be back this year. That kind of thing is important because if audiences can’t see them here they will go elsewhere – and we would much rather they came here.”