One Year On Annual Review

‘No-one throws a party quite like the Lyric Hammersmith’ Time Out

Tipping the Velvet Bugsy Malone

The Herald

‘Razzmatazz perfection’

‘Impressively original and constantly compelling’

The Daily Telegraph

Sunday Herald

Raymond Briggs’ Father Christmas ‘Magnificent’

Cinderella ‘It’s glorious.’

The Daily Telegraph

The Observer

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Independent on Sunday

‘Slapstick, magic and mayhem’ The Guardian

Herons ‘A terrific revival’ The Daily Telegraph

‘The Lyric is bringing on a new generation of actors’ The Observer

‘Studying at the Lyric helps me see the fun side of learning’ Phoenix High School Student

‘It has helped me achieve something I didn’t think I could have. My confidence has grown’ START participant

‘The Lyric is like a second home.

We’re all like family’ Melina, 19

‘I’m now more confident than I ever thought I could be’ Nathan, 18

One Year On 2015/16 has been a milestone year for the Lyric Hammersmith.

In April 2015 the Lyric reopened following a multi-million pound capital project which saw the addition of the Reuben Foundation Wing housing state-of-the-art facilities for theatre, dance, film, music, digital and more. The ‘new’ Lyric is now the largest creative hub in West London and home to an innovative partnership of like-minded leading arts organisations who work together to deliver life-changing creative opportunities for thousands of young West Londoners.

The heart of the Lyric is our 125 year old auditorium. We are one of the largest producing theatres in London and this year have welcomed more than 158,000 people to entertaining and eclectic shows, ranging from our celebrated family pantomime to the joyous Olivier-nominated Bugsy Malone to hard hitting contemporary drama.

What makes the Lyric unique is our wholehearted commitment to producing the highest quality contemporary theatre whilst nurturing the creativity of young people from all walks of life. We do powerful work with young people, many from marginalised and disadvantaged backgrounds, ensuring that the arts are open to all. We provide thousands of low cost classes, schools partnerships and specialised programmes for young offenders, looked after children or those who have dropped out of education and employment. We are passionate about nurturing the next generation of theatre artists and audiences.

What we love is when we can interweave all aspects of our work. Many who have come through our programmes have gone on to take their first professional steps on our stage or work with us to help change the lives of other young people at the Lyric and beyond.

We are proud to call Hammersmith our home. In 2016 we celebrate the 20th anniversary of our Free First Night Scheme, part of our long term partnership with the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, through which we give free tickets to people who live or work locally. Many who have never had the opportunity to see theatre are given the chance. We are committed to playing our part in ensuring that Hammersmith and surrounding areas are a vibrant and creative place to live, to work, to go to school and to grow up.

None of this would be possible without the extraordinary support of our partners, funders, donors, audiences and participants.

Thank you.

Sean Holmes Artistic Director

Registered Charity, No. 278518

Sian Alexander Executive Director

2016 marks...

Last year our Targeted Work programmes for marginalised young people, START and REWIND, reached

of START, our arts based training programme for young people who are NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training)

121

young people helping them build new skills to confidently re-engage with education or employment

3

young people from the START programme were recruited to the Lyric’s front of house team, giving them regular employment and valuable work experience

We employed

7

apprentices in our producing, box office, young people’s and technical teams

Participants on our programmes achieved

161 33 free bursary places were provided to local low income families

Arts Awards

10 Lyric Young Company members were cast in professional productions on our main stage and 2 of our Alumni played lead roles in our pantomime, Cinderella

graduates of Lyric programmes joined our Alumni scheme and were trained to become support artists for our young people’s classes and projects. Alumni have also been supported into creative roles such as Associate Choreographer on Cinderella and Producer for the Evolution Festival

We gave away

2,354 Free First Night tickets to people who live & work in the borough - and celebrated 20 years of this popular scheme

158,964

Bugsy Malone & Cinderella played to over

90% capacity

639

Only 25% of our income is public subsidy. We raise or earn the remaining 75% (Thank you for your support)

Our average ticket price was

£18.77 Our annual turnover was

£5.7

performances at the Lyric

million

We delivered We work with

9 partner organisations across theatre, dance, music, film and digital to deliver our young people’s programme

1,433 classes and projects which saw

26,292 attendances 70% of our classes are

£3.50 or under per session

We engaged with

2,022 school pupils through workshops, backstage tours, careers events and other enrichment activity

Sherice Pitter was named Creative & Cultural Skills

Apprentice of the Year 2016

Bugsy Malone

was nominated for an

Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival

Little Lyric our children’s theatre programme for under 11s played to 23,760 people. The Lyric was voted Best Venue in the Get Creative Family Arts Festival Audience Choice Awards

More than The Lyric was awarded the highest 3 star Industry Green certification by Julie’s Bicycle for the fourth year in a row - the first theatre to achieve this

95% of our lighting is LED

The Lyric is working towards a BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’ for its new building

Our recycling saved

464 trees last year

We recycled 97% of our waste and offset 58 tonnes of CO2

Changing Landscapes, Changing Lives