Autumn brings a busy new theater season with new concerts and performances of many kinds in a city where theater-going is becoming popular and regular.

Shanghai has many large theaters offering diverse programs and the approach is increasingly targeted to market segments.

Shanghai Culture Square, for example, specializes in musical theater and ticket buyers are lining up to buy tickets for “The Phantom of the Opera” on December 3 to January 12. The classic is returning to Shanghai after more than a decade.

The theater was specifically built for musical theater and features programs targeting a younger audience. The seating capacity is 1,949.

Shanghai Oriental Art Center features symphonies, concerts, ballet, stage, traditional opera and other programs. It has three venues with a total capacity of 3,300.

Shanghai Grand Theater, now under renovation, and Daning Theater are more general.

Each theater has its own development approach and the program and audience vary depending on their projects.

Ticket prices

As everywhere in the world, theater tickets of various kinds are much more expensive than cinema tickets. A ticket to a symphony orchestra easily costs more than 1,000 yuan (US$163), but many people are willing to spend the money to attend performances by orchestras that rarely visit.

Tickets for “The Phantom of the Opera” range from 80 yuan to 1,280 yuan. Tickets costing less than 700 yuan are the most popular and sell out right away. More expensive tickets take longer to sell. Almost everything is sold out until January 1.

Shanghai Oriental Art Center opened eight years ago in Pudong New Area, far from the city center and in an area without convenient transport. Most evening performances let out late and people rush to the Metro or wait a long time for taxis.

This year, the theater conducted its third audience survey, based on 3,129 interviews face-to-face, online and in the Xinmin Evening News.

Results indicate that more people can accept prices around 200 to 300 yuan, a 10-percent increase from five years ago; 13.9 percent can accept tickets costing more than 500 yuan, a big increase from almost 6 percent five years ago.

The acceptance of higher ticket prices is a result of higher incomes, willingness to spend on cultural activities, and efforts by theaters to cultivate a regular and mature audience that understands music, dance and drama better than they did in the past.

Low price tickets are mandatory for all performances in Shanghai; even for expensive commercial performances, there are always some tickets costing only 80 yuan. Theaters develop art appreciation programs offering performances at very low prices.

The Saturday Brunch Concert series at Shanghai Oriental Art Center sells tickets costing only 30 to 80 yuan.

The 1,100-seat Daning Theater in Zhabei District works with the Shanghai Ballet to host lectures and programs that cost less than 80 yuan. Seeing ballet is essential to help the general Chinese public appreciate it, and talks from experts help.

Many people express interest in ballet but say they have trouble “understanding” it, despite the artistry, elegance, color and obvious story lines. As for modern dance, most of the public is in the dark.

More than 80 percent of the seats are filled when 80-yuan tickets are offered.

Clearly, these 80-yuan educational performances boost the box office.

Wu Jie, ballet master at the Shanghai Ballet, has said that appreciation classes have been underway for years and tickets usually sell out fast afterwards.

“After we finished a season at Daning, many audience members lined up to buy tickets for the next season,” Wu says. “Theaters need companies and troupes and we need stages. It’s win-win for both sides.”

Audience demographics

The latest survey of 3,129 respondents indicates that around 67 percent of those who attend performances at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center are younger than 49. More younger people can afford tickets and 24 percent are between the ages of 30 and 39; 23 percent are from age 20 to 29.

China has a relatively younger audience for classical music compared with European countries, a fact noted by conductor Lorin Maazel earlier this year when he came to Shanghai with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Because some sophisticated arts and music are neither inexpensive nor easy for the general public to understand, people with higher income and higher education are likely to spend more money in theaters.

More than half the participants in the survey have a monthly income of more than 4,000 yuan and college degrees.

Shanghai Cultural Square opened in 2011 as the centerpiece of a hoped-for “Broadway” theater district. It focuses on musical theater that’s energetic, with singing, dancing, acting, colorful sets and interesting stage effects. It features both domestic and overseas productions. The biggest program is usually at the end of the year.

Shanghai Culture Square statistics from 2012 indicate that 61.5 percent of the audience is younger than 65 and 25.6 percent are from 36 to 55 years of age.

Because Daning Theater takes a more general approach, it stages projects ranging from rock concerts to traditional Chinese operas, attracting both young and older audiences.

What audiences want

Shanghai Oriental Art Center’s survey showed that more than 71 percent of respondents favor symphonies and 42.5 percent favor chamber music, followed by musicals, ballet and stage plays.

In 2012, almost 55 percent of the programs at Shanghai Culture Square were musicals and stage plays, almost 7 percent were dance, and just over 5 percent were concerts.

 Since it opened two years ago, shows like “Ultimate Broadway,” “Notre-Dame de Paris,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “Awakening” have attracted many theatergoers, says Ke Fei, deputy manager of strategy and planning.

Musicals and stage plays are the favorites. More than 20 percent of the audience preferred musicals, he says.

“We are working on building the platform for development of musicals,” Ke says.

Theaters consider many factors when deciding what to stage, including audience demand, market and theater branding and positioning.

“Though Shanghai Grand Theater introduced musicals 10 years ago, theatergoers still don’t have enough knowledge about musical theater, so we take this into consideration in our musical and arts education,” Ke says.

At the Daning Theater, the best three performances of the past season were sold out: the concert by Spanish tenor Jose Carreras Shanghai Concert, the drama “The Yellow Storm” based on the Lao She novel of Beijing families under Japanese occupation, and the Qiaohu children’s stage show. Concerts by the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg and the German band Final Virus had 80 percent attendance, as did the traditional Yueju opera “The Romance of the Western Wing.”

Upcoming shows

Musical ‘The Phantom of the Opera’
Date: December 3-January 12
Venue: Shanghai Culture Square
Address: 597 Fuxing Rd M.

Flamenco ‘Carmen’ by the Spanish Ballet of Murcia — Opening show of new season
Date: August 30-September 1
Venue: Shanghai Oriental Art Center
Address: 425 Dingxiang Rd, Pudong New Area

Dance ‘The Deep Love of the Family’
Date: August 25-26
Venue: Daning Theater
Address: 1222 Pingxingguan Rd