Exclusive: refreshment costs can add more than a third to average West End ticket price

West End theatregoers can be charged up to £18.50 for a programme, an ice cream and a glass of wine, according to research carried out by The Stage.

Audiences will be paying the most for extras when seeing Elf at Dominion Theatre, which also has the West End’s most expensive tickets – with premium seats costing £240.

With the cost of wine, ice cream and a programme on top of the seat price, a theatregoer could pay up to £258.50 on a single night out at a theatre in London.

The average price of buying all three extras across the West End is now £12.45. Added to the average top ticket price across the West End (£86.78) this totals almost £100 for an evening at the theatre, while on top of the average cheapest ticket (£20.13) it comes to £32.58.

The cheapest venue to purchase all three extras together is the National Theatre’s Temporary Theatre, largely due to the £1 price point for a programme. These are usually less extensive than the average West End programme.

Prices for extras in the West End have increased on average by 3% – a minimal increase, but ahead of the rock bottom 0.04% rate of inflation.*

The Dominion Theatre has pushed programme prices further than previously recorded, charging £10 alongside otherwise relatively standard prices for wine and ice cream.

But while prices in the commercial sector are higher on average, it is actually subsidised theatre where the cost of extras has increased more over the past year. The price of all three extras has risen by 3% in the subsidised sector, compared with 2% in the commercial sector.

The most expensive extras in subsidised theatre can be found for the second year in a row at the Royal Opera House, which now charges £7 for a programme – £3 higher than the subsidised average. The Donmar Warehouse will set audiences back furthest for a glass of wine, at £5.70 for the least costly measure.

*RPI calculated between August 2014 and March 2015, the most recent figures available.

Methodology

For this survey, we assessed the cost of extras on performances taking place on October 24 – or the next performance scheduled if no show took place on that date. We asked each theatre in the West End to state the cost of a programme, a tub of vanilla ice cream and the cheapest glass of white wine available.

More common this year are what theatres call ‘souvenir brochures’: larger and glossier than programmes, with a higher price. They have only been included here when theatres offered no cheaper programme alternative.

We list the cheapest glass of wine available at each theatre, regardless of size. Stephen Waley-Cohen, operator of the Ambassadors and St Martin’s theatres, was keen to stress that the only measure of wine served at those venues was 187ml, compared with the 125ml measure sold by most other venues. The Shaftesbury Theatre said its £3.80 charge for an ice cream was for a “premium” brand.

* Figures marked with an asterisk in the graph denote venues that have specified they sell a ‘souvenir brochure’ instead of a programme.