London Evening Standard/London
London theatres risk losing an entire generation of future audiences because of high ticket prices in the West End, Oscar winner Kevin Spacey warned yesterday.Spacey, artistic director of the Old Vic, said that with prices reaching more than £50, the West End was becoming an “exclusive club”, and it was “short-sighted” to make it unaffordable for the young, who could choose to save their cash or buy gadgets such as iPads.Unless theatres offered cheaper seats their current audiences would die out and not be replaced, he warned.He spoke as the Old Vic, where he has worked for eight years as artistic director, announced a subsidised ticket scheme for under-25s. Sponsored by accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, it will provide £12 tickets for 100 young people at each performance this year.“When I look around at Broadway and the West End, theatre is becoming an exclusive club,” Spacey said.Theatre-going in central London was practically unaffordable “if you don’t have £115 to spend, and that’s not talking about parking, dinner, the baby-sitting and everything else. Kids are not going to spend that kind of money. They’re going to buy iPads, save the money, or do something else.“As the generation that is going passes on, the question is who is going to replace them? If we don’t reach out to make theatre affordable to the young generation we will lose them all. It is so short-sighted not to think about your future audiences. In this climate we need more than ever for companies to step up and support initiatives that make theatre accessible, especially to young people. Exposure to the arts and culture is enormously valuable.”He said the benefits that theatre could instil included a greater understanding of the world and other people, and better communication skills — “crucial life skills” that would help young people regardless of whether they had any desire to work in the arts.