Partner Article

Successful first year for Theatre Royal and City Hall tie-up as venues push towards capacity

The Newcastle Theatre Royal Trust is celebrating a successful first year managing Newcastle’s City Hall with booming audience numbers across both its venues and industry-beating capacity figures.

Just under half a million (493k) customers passed through the doors of Newcastle Theatre Royal and City Hall between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2017 with attendance hitting 81.6% capacity. An increase of 1.6% on last year and a sizeable 20% above the national average.

In that time the Grade 1 listed theatre welcomed 39 theatre, opera, ballet and dance companies across 399 performance performed in front of 378k audience members.

Financially it was another impressive year for the not-for-profit trust with turnover up £3.6m on the previous year to £16m, facilitating investment of £5.2m into the region’s economy over the last financial year while supporting 121 full time jobs.

Chief Executive Philip Bernays said: “The year 2016/17 - being the first year since we took on the management of the City Hall - presented the team with a number of significant challenges and we are delighted to be able to report a hugely successful year which has exceed expectations and is a clear indication of our collective strength.

“There are exciting times ahead – indeed we have committed significant funds towards substantial improvements at City Hall where early stage work is already well underway – and the team is looking to continue to build on the excellent work of the last twelve months to bring together the strengths of each into an even better whole.”

Want your business, product or service to be seen regionally and nationally? Bdaily helps you get your story in front of the right audience, every day. Find out how Bdaily can help →

Join more than 55,000 subscribers by signing up to our daily bulletin each morning here.