London Theatre Up

Today The Stage reports that revenue from London's theatre box office was up last year, despite the global recession.

Box office revenue totalled £480.5 million, up 3% on 2007's already record figure, while attendances for the year totalled 13.8 million - up 1%.

Musicals ended 2008 1% up year-on-year, while plays suffered a slight loss, ending the year 1% down. This figure could have been worse, but for a very strong final quarter, which saw attendances across the board improve significantly.

In fact, had it not been for a Christmas period which was "significantly" stronger than last year, the end of year figures could have shown a slight – perhaps 1% - drop overall.

Nica Burns, chief executive of Nimax and the president of the Society of London Theatre, which compiles the results, said: "It was a quite remarkable year. Behind these figures are many very talented hard-working people putting on and selling world-class shows that people actually want to see. There's a lot of economic doom and gloom out there, but it would seem people still want to be entertained and stimulated in numbers."