Sadler's Wells, Britain's leading dance theatre, reported an increase in total audiences of 56 per cent in the past six years, with the numbers attending pure contemporary dance – as opposed to hip-hop or street dancing – tripling since 2005.
This was not a view shared by audiences or the critics, one of whom wrote: Babes in the Wood was a triumph: the theatre reported record attendance, and the run was extended until 27 April 1889.
The for-profit Pantages Theatre reported having sold a smattering of $300 seats for "Beauty and the Beast" in 2011 when seats had grown extremely scarce near the end of its run; it wasn't immediately clear whether that high has been exceeded by subsequent attractions such as "The Book of Mormon".
The reaction from the public, however, was mixed; whilst 10,000 visited Scarborough to view the damage there, London theatres reported having fewer visitors during periods of "Zeppelin weather"—dark, fine nights.
The report followed a separate theatre diversity report commissioned by Andrew Lloyd Webber which warned that theatre risked being sidelined unless it better tackled the diversity issue.
The situation is not much better when it comes to the world of theatre; the report finds that women make up only 31.8% of chief executives of 'national theatre companies' – 85.8% of these companies' boards are chaired by men.
The public was savage and unrelenting: Thomas Hamblin, the interestingly titled Theatre Inquisitor reported, was greeted, after playing Othello, with "one deep and universal hiss, and we hope that this decisive testimony of public opinion will teach him to estimate more correctly his own attainments and abilities".
In 2011 and 2013, the four winning plays were equally split between male and female winners – a considerable advance on the findings of the British Theatre Repertoire report, which found that in 2013 only 31% of plays on UK stages were written by women.
The theatre's report also stated that the development department raised £7.4m in annual income, its highest totals from individuals and corporate support.
In June 2008, Puma confirmed it is opening a two-level flagship store on Block 37. Also, the Muvico Theatre was reported to have an eight screen multiplex.
