Chichester Festival Theatre well set for 2023

Yes, straight plays are down a little on where they might have been, but the storming success of the big summer musical means the CFT are pretty much back to pre-pandemic levels. Before Crazy For You, the CFT was talking in terms of sales being 20 per cent down. Thanks to the roaring success of Crazy For You, the theatre (January to October) is four per cent down on sales and six per cent down on attendance – at a time when the average for venues is something like nine per cent down on attendance.

CFT executive director Kathy Bourne said: “We are relieved by that and we are thrilled by that. We are really proud. We knew that the summer musical was so incredibly important for our summer season. The season can live or die by the summer musical, but the fact that we did so well with this musical speaks volumes to us, and Local Hero in the Minerva was very similar. We seem to have a continuing appetite for these musicals. And for the winter season, we have been astonished by the sales. We know that people are booking later than usual but everything is doing well, literally everything, Marigold Hotel, Warren’s Profession, Mother Goose. It is looking very good. This time last year we were going into the winter season really not knowing what was going to happen with Covid but this time we're going into it knowing that our advance sales have been really impressive and that's great for our brilliant team who are incredibly tired after the season. It helps with morale and it helps the sense that we're doing the right thing.

“Theatre-going is a habit and we started out (last) year not knowing what was going to happen, how our audiences were going to behave but in fact the support has been absolutely brilliant. Chichester's USP has always been our quality and we chose to work with co-producing partners that took exactly that same approach, that shared our belief that we have to deliver real quality work. But the fact is that that shared risk of working with co-producers was very helpful to us as well.

“The fact is that not everything does the same in terms of shows. The plays have not done as well as the musicals. I would say that the plays were still down but the musicals were right on track.” Which isn't remotely, in Kathy's view, an invitation to go solely down the musicals route: “As we go into the new tenure with a new artistic director at the Festival Theatre (this) year, it is absolutely vital as a subsidised organisation that we continue to deliver a diverse programme that takes risks alongside the musicals. The beauty of the model that we have in Chichester is the ability to rob Peter to pay Paul and support those shows in the Minerva that we know might not be going to do as well. We have to acknowledge that we have fantastically loyal supporters and we just wouldn’t be here if it weren't for them but we have to acknowledge that they won't be here forever. In order for the theatres to survive for another 60 years we have to make sure that we are looking to develop our younger audiences as well and that's why it is so important that we take the risks that we do – alongside the big musicals.”