May 17, 2011 12.12 pm This story is over 154 months old

Theatre Royal cashes in £1.2m in a year

Strong sales: A year after a big revamp, Lincoln Theatre Royal reports strong sales and attendance for its shows.

Lincoln Theatre Royal has taken £1.2 million in its first year under new management, around £250,000 on top of the venue’s sales target.

The success of the venue is being attributed to securing critically acclaimed musicals into Lincoln and a host of classic plays as well as well-known names such as Chaz and Dave and Tony Christie.

Ian Dickens, the artist director and CEO of the Theatre Royal, wanted the line-up to be different, from English syllabus classics to modern armchair thrillers.

Drama was a hard sell for the theatre, but attractive pricing packages encouraged the audiences to come to the plays.

Dickens says on average the theatre had 60% attendance for all its shows, and now employs 17 full-time staff.

The theatre was built-in 1897 and was owned by the City Council since 1976. In 2009 it suffered a loss of £170,000 in council grants.

In 2010 the site was then sold to ID Entertainment, which ran the theatre for the previous 18 months.

The sale allowed the Theatre Royal to scoop £500,000, which was used to revamp the exterior and interior of the building.

Dickens’ future plans include building a studio in Clasketgate which will provide them with more rehearsal spaces and should be complete by September.

Related Report: Lincolnshire Echo | Photo: Kelly Moore for The Lincolnite