Via a new partnership with Twickets, Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s LW Theatres has became the first theatre operator in the UK to offer consumer friendly face-value ticket resale across its venues.

Tickets purchased via LW Theatres box offices can now be resold via Twickets’ website or mobile app for no more than the price originally paid, offering an alternative to traditional secondary ticketing sites.

LW Theatres, formerly Really Useful Theatres, operates seven London venues: Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Cambridge Theatre, Adelphi Theatre, Gillian Lynne Theatre, the Other Palace, Her Majesty’s Theatre and the 2,286-capacity London Palladium, which is popular live music venue.

Launched in 2015, Twickets has worked with artists including Adele, Stormzy, Ed Sheeran, Arctic Monkeys, Mumford and Sons and the 1975, and facilitated the ethical resale of more than half a million fans’ tickets. The LW partnership is its first official tie-in with a UK theatre group.

“Our goal is always to improve the ticket-buying experience, fill venues and keep customers happy”

Rebecca Kane Burton, CEO of LW Theatres, says: “We continue to strive to not only offer our customers an incredible experience, but also help them when things don’t go to plan. Providing a safe, secure and easy way to resell tickets is best practice and yet another step LW Theatres is taking to innovate and improve theatre-going.”

“The UK is in the midst of a market shift away from rip-off secondary ticketing platforms and towards capped consumer friendly resale services,” Twickets’ founder, Richard Davies, adds.

“I am proud Twickets is at the forefront of this change, and delighted we can extend our service to theatre-lovers via this groundbreaking partnership with LW Theatres. Our goal is always to improve the ticket-buying experience, fill venues and keep customers happy.”

In addition to its UK base, Twickets is active in Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, Spain and the US.

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Really Useful Theatres Group has appointed Vanessa Andreis to the newly created role of commercial partnerships director.

Really Useful, which owns and operates six theatres in the West End of London, has been on a hiring spree of late, poaching The O2’s general manager, Rebecca Kane Burton, last September and last month appointing former Roundhouse head of music Dave Gaydon as its head of programming.

Andreis most recently served as executive director of client services and partnerships at Lime Communications, a brand partnerships agency, and previously spent 12 years Warner Bros as director of promotions and partnerships.

Kane Burton, now Really Useful’s managing director, comments: “I’m absolutely delighted to welcome Vanessa to the Really Useful family. The role of commercial partnerships director is a newly created one, and reflects the future vision and strategy for our company.

“Vanessa will be looking to launch the group’s partnership programme: a new direction for the business”

“Not only will Vanessa be looking after all of our non-ticketing revenue across all our venues, but will also be looking to launch the group’s partnership programme – a new direction for the business.”

“I am excited to start a new challenge within this world-renowned and prestigious company,” adds Andreis. “I look forward to working with such a talented team to develop further their already extensive partnerships across the Really Useful Theatre portfolio.”

Really Useful Theatres is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lord Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group. Its venues are the London Palladium (2,286-cap.), Her Majesty’s Theatre (1,216-cap.), Adelphi Theatre (1,500-cap.), Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (2,196-cap.), Cambridge Theatre (1,231-cap.), New London Theatre (1,024-cap.) and the newly acquired The Other Palace (312-cap.), which opened as the St James Theatre in 2012 on the site of the former Westminster Theatre.

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For ten years, the shows of Mother Africa have been bringing the pulse of the African continent to the stage. More than two million visitors worldwide have already been thrilled by the zest for life demonstrated by some of Africa’s leading artists, musicians and dancers.

In 2014, after a successful run on New York’s Broadway, the production was nominated for best show performance at the Drama Desk Awards, Broadway’s equivalent of the Oscars. Now, a brand-new show takes audiences to Khayelitsha, one of the biggest townships in South Africa. From 21 February to 12 March, Khayelitsha will be performed live for the first time in the UK, at the Peacock Theatre in London’s West End.

About 25km away from the city of Cape Town and Table Mountain lies Khayelitsha. Close to two million people live in Khayelitsha – the Xhosa word for “New Home” – in self-built shacks made of panel sheets, wood and cardboard. Founded as a sanctuary for black people, who had been banned from South African cities by the Apartheid government, Khayelitsha remains plagued by violence and crime – but is also a place of hope, talent and positive energy, on which the show focuses.

In Khayelitsha, young athletes from a host of different African nations will present their motherland in the most heartfelt way: joyful, colourful, creative and confident. The hustle and bustle of the townships is the central theme of the show, uniting dance, song and artistry with quotations from African history and bridges to European culture.

In Khayelitsha, young athletes from a host of different African nations present their motherland in the most heartfelt way: joyful, colourful, creative and confident

The show sees Khayelitsha’s ‘inhabitants’ making their way through the chaos of the township with neckbreaking unicycle constructions made of rebuilt bikes and pushcarts. Ladders or washbowls suddenly become props for fabulous creativity. Young people sing and dance in the street, while others build human pyramids, performing breathtaking Icarian games or contortion acts on simple handcarts. Life in Africa is often a balancing act between tradition and modernity – so it’s no wonder that in Khayelitsha, Zulu dance and traditional music meet cool grooves and modern breakdancing.

In Khayelitsha, Mother Africa presents a colourful world, packed with dance, music and acrobatics, highlighting a new, unique view of Africa as a land of stunning beauty.

Mother Africa is more than just a circus show – it is a journey through the African continent, guided by some of its most talented performers. As the only African circus production, Mother Africa is giving African artists the opportunity to present themselves to audiences on an international level. Only ‘real’ African artists are cast for Mother Africa – artists whose lives are firmly rooted in this exciting, vibrant continent full of contrasts.

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