Lyric Hammersmith Celebrates One Year On

Following its major capital development programme

The Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith hosted a One Year On event last week to celebrate a year since the building reopened, following its major capital development and creation of the Reuben Foundation Wing.

The building reopened in April 2015 with Sir Alan Parker’s world famous stage musical Bugsy Malone, directed by the Lyric’s Artistic Director Sean Holmes. The Olivier nominated production returns to the theatre in June 2016.

The Lyric’s capital project included the construction of the Reuben Foundation Wing, housing a range of state of the art facilities including rehearsal, dance, digital, film and recording studios.

The existing building was refurbished with a new Peyton and Byrne café and bar, and now benefits from improved disabled access. The new building has enabled the Lyric to expand dual commitment to producing the highest quality contemporary theatre, whilst nurturing the creativity of young people.

The Lyric celebrated its most successful box office year to date with 158,964 people attending 639 performances at the venue, with both Bugsy Malone and the Christmas pantomime Cinderella playing to over 90% capacity.

Over the last year the Lyric has won several awards including the Get Creative Family Arts Festival Audience Choice Award for Best Venue. Bugsy Malone was nominated for Best Musical Revival at the Olivier Awards and won the Also Recognised Award’s Best Ensemble Performance.

The ‘new’ Lyric is now home to a partnership of like-minded arts organisations, and working together with these 9 partners they have delivered 1,433 classes and projects, which had attendances of over 26,000 young people. During this year, 70% of these classes were £3.50 or under per session and the Lyric provided 33 free bursary places to their acting classes alone.

Last financial year the Lyric had a turnover of £5.7million, with only 25% of their income coming from subsidy.

April 29, 2016