News and Events
Victoria Palace Licenses AudienceView Ticketing Solution
Toronto, ON and London, UK - January 22, 2009 - AudienceView Ticketing, a worldwide leading in-house ticketing solutions provider signed a long term contract with Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen. Stephen Waley-Cohen manages the Victoria Palace Theatre, St. Martin's Theatre and the Ambassadors Theatre in London’s West End. These three prestigious theatres will be using AudienceView Ticketing’s white labeled solution for box office and online ticket sales.
"Given their strong theatre client base in the UK and abroad, AudienceView was the clear choice as our new ticketing partner" said Andrew Mills, General Manager of the Victoria Palace, St. Martin’s & Ambassadors. "We were impressed with their overall knowledge of theatre and their ability to work with us directly to include some new functionality specific to West End needs."
The 1,550 seat Victoria Palace Theatre opened in 1911 and features a magnificent sliding roof, a simple precursor of air-conditioning. The stage musical of the hit film Billy Elliott opened at the Victoria Palace in 2005 to great acclaim and has gone on to collect every best musical award possible. In London, Billy Elliot has now been seen by over 1.5 million people and has grossed over £85 million. The Ambassadors Theatre and St Martin's were conceived by their architect, W.G.R. Sprague and opened in 1913 and 1916 respectively. The world's longest running and most famous play, The Mousetrap, started its run at the Ambassadors theatre, before moving next door to the St Martin’s which has been its home for the last 34 years, more than half of its record breaking 56 year run! Since The Mousetrap, the Ambassadors has enjoyed numerous other successes, including the Royal Shakespeare's hit production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses in the 1980s. The current production of the international hit Stomp opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in October 2007. These three venues play host to over 750,000 patrons annually. By licensing the AudienceView solution, all three theatres plan to take their online ticketing back in house to better control their consumer experience.
All three theatres will now be able to take advantage of AudienceView’s integrated ticketing and CRM solution used by numerous other UK area clients including the NEC Group, Sheffield International Venues, the Liverpool Philharmonic, National Concert Hall and Leicester Theatre Trust.
"Victoria Palace, St. Martins and the Ambassadors Theatre have a long and celebrated history in London theatre" said Jeff Koets, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at AudienceView Ticketing. "We are extremely pleased to be able to include them in our growing family of arts clients in the UK and to be able to provide them with ticketing solutions to help facilitate their continued success and improve the purchasing experience for their patrons."
About Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen
Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen manages the Victoria Palace, the St. Martin’s and the Ambassadors Theatre. Stephen has been a theatre owner and manager since 1984 when he was Joint Chief Executive of Maybox Group which acquired and managed the Albery, Criterion, Donmar Warehouse, Piccadilly, Whitehall and Wyndham’s Theatres, as well as developing the first British-owned multiplex cinema. Maybox was sold in 1989, the same year in which he became Director of the Victoria Palace Theatre. Sir Stephen became the producer of The Mousetrap in 1994. Since then he has also taken on the management of the St.Martin’s Theatre as well as the Vaudeville from 1995-2002 and the Savoy from 1997-2005. In April 2007 Sir Stephen purchased the Ambassadors Theatre, the sister theatre to the St.Martin’s and the original home of The Mousetrap for the first 21 years of its run. Before entering the theatre business Sir Stephen was a financial journalist and a founder director of Euromoney Publications. Sir Stephen was President of the Society of London Theatre from 2002-2005; and he was a Trustee of The Theatres Trust 1998-2004. In 2007 Sir Stephen became Chairman of RADA, The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
About AudienceView Ticketing
AudienceView provides a fully integrated, web-based ticketing, CRM and fundraising solutions to more than 120 sports, arts, entertainment and non-traditional ticketing organizations worldwide. Supporting both in-house and hosted ticketing models, AudienceView’s white-label solution offers the ability to create unlimited online brands, control your venue and event data, access real-time business data and interact directly with your customers. AudienceView’s leading-edge solution opens the door to superior venue management, an enhanced customer experience and ultimately, increased revenue.
- For More Information on AudienceView Ticketing:
- Chris Castle
- 416-687-2010
- chris.castle@audienceview.com