SLUMP FOR THEATRES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1005, 23 June 1930, Page 11

SLUMP FOR THEATRES

£4 16/- AT PERFORMANCE THOUSANDS OF POUNDS LOST Not for years lias there been such a. slump in theatrical business as that now being experienced, says a writer in the London “Daily Chronicle.” The number ot West End shows that are making money can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Thousands of pounds are being lost. Yet theatrical managers do not know the cause of the bad business. One manager said: “It is just one of the strange things that happen in the theatre. There is nothing to account for it. Business may recover next week just as quickly as it has dropped.” Single Figure Houses One expensive production took only £4 16s at a recent evening performance and £7 odd at another—scarcely enough to pay the salary of the lowest-paid member of the cast. Another piece drew £S one night and just over £lO the next, and now averages £2O to £3O a performance. Even some of the most established successes are suffering. It is said that at one theatre the receipts, which have been consistently high, dropped by £3OO last week. High Renta! Paradox

Even amid the slump theatre rents remain high.

Because the producers are unable to secure a theatre at a rental offering a reasonable chance of profit, the West End production of “The Man I Killed,” has been postponed. It is a play with a war theme, which has been adapted from the French. It completed a try-out tour of visits to Streatham, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow and Golders Green. The cast includes Robert Loraine, Maurice Evans, Sarah Allgood and Jean Forbes-Robertson. Mr. A. Parnell, who is associated with the presentation of the piece, said the promoters had been in negotiation with several West End theatres but in no case were the rental terms considered satisfactory.