The Boom in Britain

The Broadway hit musicomedy Kismet opened in London with at least two handicaps. The show was housed in a vast theater off the beaten track, and it was saddled with an immense (for England) $126,000 budget. But after opening night, it looked as if Kismet would also be a London hit. "Obviously, a great success," said the Times.

Kismet is only one indication of a British theater boom this season. Despite a 25% increase in the price of theater tickets since 1939, attendance is up by at least 30%. In London's West End, 42 playhouses are running full blast; 100 repertory companies are operating in principal cities; 40 touring companies play one-night to two-week stands in the provinces, and 50 touring revues and dozens of variety bills rove the nation.

Possible reasons why the British theater is healthier than Broadway:

P: It is easy to get tickets at the last minute.

P: Hard liquor--or tea--is available in the theater between acts.

P: Performances start early, usually at 7:30, and seats are cheap, with a -L-1 ($2.80) top.

P: British theatergoers do not insist on seeing a smash hit, but are satisfied with "a jolly good little play."

Perhaps most important, the British producer gets by on a much smaller investment. At $126,000, the cost of the London production of Kismet was half the cost of the Broadway production. More typically, the cost of the London production of The Desperate Hours ($22,000) was only about one-fifth the $106,000 needed to put the thriller on Broadway earlier this season.

A U.S. Air Force captain stationed in England has demonstrated how even an amateur producer can prosper in the West End. When British pros refused to finance 43-year-old Max Morgan, who wanted to put on an all-Negro musical revue, the New York-born captain found his angels among 65 Air Force men at the 19 U.S. bases in Britain. Fired by the $50,000 the flyers shoveled into it, Jazz Train screeched into London's Piccadilly Theater last week and had critics shouting that it was the best musical since Blackbirds in the '20s.

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