Harry Potter and Hamilton help push London theater audiences to 15 million for the first time

Who said theater audiences were dwindling? London saw 15 million people make it to theaters around the city during the year for the first time ever.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has certainly created buzz around the world, and that buzz has transformed into ticket sales and a record. Thanks to the likes of the Cursed Child and Hamilton, London theater audiences topped 15 million in 2017. It’s the first time that figure has been seen in London’s West End, proving that theater isn’t dying.

That theater attendance is up 5% from 2016, which saw 14.6 million people attend various theater performances. The increase was even broken down by genre, with 7% more people attending stage productions like Cursed Child and 8% more people going to see musicals like Hamilton.

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The Society of London Theatre (SOLT) gathered the information, with one spokeswoman admitting that the higher figures were due to an increase in attendees during the first two quarters. Numbers started to drop in the second half of the year.

We will still remain cautious

SOLT president Kenny Wax does say that the industry remains cautious for 2018, but still wants to celebrate the recent success. It shows that there is still an interest in theater productions and musicals, despite the world moving to online streaming and more television options.

In fact, in-home options may be helping matters. The movie production of Les Miserables with Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe was certainly a success, with people looking at the stage production to see the difference. The success of the movie saw the French Revolution-based musical return to Broadway in 2014.

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child now has a chance to help Broadway see the same results. The production will move to New York next week. It will be interesting to see if this has a knock-on effect for London’s West End or whether other productions can help to keep the interest.