A drink at the bar is rarely the highlight of any trip to the theatre. Beers are swiftly decanted into bendy plastic tumblers; wines are often an underwhelming choice of “red, white or fizzy”; and prices can be extortionate. But with most theatre bars opening about 90 minutes before curtain-up, that’s a lot of time to kill clutching a mediocre glass of merlot.
Not so at this summer’s Regent’s Park Open Air theatre revival of Fiddler on the Roof, where a Matchmaker Mojito (which includes a mint chocolate Matchmaker as a swizzle stick) and a Sunrise Sunset (a cross between a Buck’s Fizz and a Tequila Sunrise) are among the available drinks. Both cocktails take their inspiration, and their names, from songs from the show.
At London’s Savoy theatre, the stage adaptation of Mean Girls brought with it a collection of “We drink pink” cocktails, including a Sugar Punch, a Lychee Sour and a Pink Candy, which combines amaretto, lychee syrup, prosecco, edible glitter and candy floss. (These are available every day, “not just on Wednesdays”, as the menu points out with a knowing wink to the film.) Even long-running shows such as Wicked have been offering themed drinks, with its goblets of Pink Cocktail and Emerald Elixir.
Sometimes the connection is obvious – see the Doubtfire Daiquiri at Mrs Doubtfire the musical (Shaftesbury theatre). Sometimes, knowledge of the show in question is required: audiences at Operation Mincemeat (Fortune theatre), for example, can now order a sangria – not a bespoke cocktail, but a kind of interval in-joke.
Tanith Lindon is head of bars, dining and commercial events at the Regent’s Park Open Air theatre, and creator of that Matchmaker Mojito. Lindon says: “I try to find something within the themes of each show to link the cocktail, often with an entertaining pun to tie it together. By far the most successful show cocktails we’ve created were for Legally Blonde. We offered an OMG&T, which was a pink gin and tonic with a candy floss tuft on top; and a Bend and Schnapps, which was another deliciously pink concoction. We had an incredibly engaged, mostly female, audience, who typically buy more cocktails, and themed cocktails far outsold any other drinks.”
It is perhaps easiest to create custom drinks in the West End, where shows take up residency for weeks if not months, rather than small or regional theatres, which often host a production for a short time. But at the Bristol Old Vic, custom drinks are “something we always try to do with our shows”, says the theatre’s head of hospitality and events, Ryan Garvey. Earlier this year, they created a Raspberry Fizz cocktail, named after one of the musical numbers in their production of Starter for Ten. For Gurt Haunted, a show playing near Halloween, he says they plan to offer themed drinks, “including haunted and glowing cocktails”.
Stage plays are getting the bespoke drinks treatment too. Earlier this year, the stage adaptation of sci-fi thriller Minority Report at the Lyric Hammersmith theatre in west London inspired cocktails including a Dame Julia and a Precognition. Before that, the May/June production of Alice Childress’s 1960s drama Wedding Band was accompanied by cocktails including Planters Punch, Dragoons Punch and Cherry Bounce.
But with theatre tickets often prohibitively expensive, will patrons be put off by the added expense of a bespoke cocktail? Paul Gallagher, commercial director at the Lyric Hammersmith, says: “When customers are paying sometimes relatively quite high [ticket] prices, they are often inclined to continue that ‘treat’ of a night out at the theatre with additional purchases. Cocktails are a good example of an add-on that is more special than just a beer or wine.” When the cocktail is themed and packaged as part of the experience, they’ve found that theatregoers are more inclined to indulge.
Paddy Ratcliffe, head of bars at the National Theatre, says custom cocktails aren’t a good fit for every show. “A storytelling element is key,” he says. “Last year, we had The Witches, which was kid friendly, and Formula 86 is something which features in the show, so we created a mocktail for them. It’s a purple potion, so we used lemonade, cranberry juice and violet syrup. For the adults, they had the opportunity to ‘spike’ it with vodka or gin. It was amazingly successful.” Last year, he also created a cocktail named Sweet Caroline for James Graham’s Dear England: “It really was a lot of fun, with red grenadine drizzled on top for those England colours.”
Naturally, social media also plays its role; interesting and aesthetically pleasing cocktails are ideal Instagram fodder – especially if they come with a pun-heavy name. “We are living in a world where people like to document the interesting things they’re doing,” agrees Ratcliffe. “When we do more colourful, playful drinks, people are getting photos of themselves drinking it next to the poster for the show, or with their tickets.”
Of course, some patrons are always going to pick a pint over, say, an Emerald Elixir – but there are plenty who are willing to be lured by something a little out of the ordinary. Bespoke cocktails always sell, says Lindon, “but certain demographics buy them in greater quantities … a younger theatregoer is more likely to buy a champagne cocktail than a glass of champagne. I try to put something on the menu that might tempt them away from their usual pint or glass of house wine, and create something that you can’t get in any other West End theatre.”
As the autumn theatre season begins, what might be next on theatre bar menus? A Prospero’s Storm (I’m picturing a twist on the classic Dark’n’Stormy) for The Tempest at Theatre Royal Drury Lane? Or The Devil Wears Grappa for the transfer of the musical adaptation of the 00s classic to the West End? If there’s another option than a plastic flute of lukewarm prosecco, I’m in.