Theatres 'need £250m' to survive

London's West End theatreland needs a £250 million investment if it is to avoid the final curtain, a report warns.

The 40 commercially owned theatres need the cash over a 15-year period to pay for much needed refurbishment if they are to survive.

"The renaissance of the West End can only be brought about by refurbishing the buildings we already have," says the report by The Theatres Trust into regenerating the area.

Theatre is big business. The report suggests that West End theatregoers spent around £789 million in 2001 for tickets, transport, accommodation and restaurant visits.

But the document - Act Now! Modernising London's  West End Theatres - warns that the buildings need a facelift.

"Most theatre buildings still reflect the conventions of a period when theatre audiences were segregated into different classes, when decent conditions were only provided for a minority of the audience, and when theatre-goers were physically smaller," the report says.

It warns: "Without an investment, the prospects are bleak. Theatre audiences cannot be expected to tolerate indefinitely  conditions that reflect theatre going 100 years ago.

"Sooner or later a major problem at one of the theatres will force a closure. The smaller playhouses will simply become too expensive to maintain."

It concludes that around £250 million must be spent over a decade and a half to bring playhouses up to modern standards comparable with subsidised venues.

The Theatres Trust says most subsidised theatres have received National Lottery cash and there is now "a marked imbalance between the two sectors".

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