South Africa provides an abundance of entertainment options. Over 100 active spaces across the country offer everything from indigenous drama, music, dance, cabaret and satire to West End and Broadway hits, classical concerts, opera and ballet. The result is stiff competition to attract attendees. Adding to this worry, with an ageing population, and young people less inclined to attend live theatre, audiences are getting smaller. There is thus serious concern about the future sustainability of theatre. A literature review confirms that little research has been done on who goes to the theatre and why. This study investigates audience members’ motives for attending performances of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera at the Teatro at Montecasino in Johannesburg and uses these motives to categorize the attendees into market segments. The survey, carried out from 31 January to 6 May 2012, was the first analysis of attendees at a musical theatre production of this magnitude in South Africa. The survey provided valuable insights into the behaviour of people attending productions of this kind in South Africa and the findings suggest policies and marketing strategies for attracting more visitors to the theatre.

中文翻译：

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为《歌剧魅影》的观众拉开帷幕

南非提供丰富的娱乐选择。全国有 100 多个活跃场所，提供从本土戏剧、音乐、舞蹈、歌舞表演和讽刺到西区和百老汇热门歌曲、古典音乐会、歌剧和芭蕾舞等各种节目。结果是吸引与会者的激烈竞争。更令人担忧的是，随着人口老龄化，年轻人不太愿意参加现场表演，观众人数越来越少。因此，剧院未来的可持续性受到严重关注。一项文献综述证实，关于谁去剧院以及为什么去剧院的研究很少。本研究调查了观众在约翰内斯堡蒙特卡西诺剧院观看安德鲁·劳埃德·韦伯 (Andrew Lloyd Webber) 的《歌剧魅影》(The Phantom of the Opera) 表演的动机，并利用这些动机将观众分为不同的细分市场。该调查于 2012 年 1 月 31 日至 5 月 6 日进行，是首次对南非如此规模的音乐剧演出的观众进行分析。该调查提供了有关在南非观看此类作品的人们的行为的宝贵见解，调查结果提出了吸引更多观众参观剧院的政策和营销策略。