War Horse leads the charge as West End shows sell £5million tickets in advance

A PECULIAR triumvirate of Waiting For Godot, Calendar Girls and War Horse is heading a storming start to the year in West End theatre with almost £5million in advance ticket sales.

Godot has already taken £1.6million two months before opening thanks to stellar casting in Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, as has the story of the Women's Institute members who raised money for leukaemia by stripping. Calendar Girls opens at the Noel Coward Theatre on 20 April.

Co-producer David Pugh said: "People seem to have taken these ladies and embraced them."

And despite two sell-out runs at the National Theatre, the puppet masterpiece War Horse has taken £1.5million for its forthcoming transfer to the West End.

Across the board, the stage is proving resilient with bookings up 2.6 per cent in January and February on what was already a record-breaking last year.

Thriller Live, based on the music of Michael Jackson and his siblings, has extended its booking period after proving a bigger box office hit than any show the Lyric Theatre, in Shaftesbury Avenue, has presented in the last 15 years.

Avenue Q, the puppet show which had been set to close, now has bookings up 15 per cent for the first quarter of this year. Some weeks have registered a 26 per cent rise over the same week last year. The success means it will now reopen at the Gielgud Theatre in June.

The Duke of York's, a 600-seat venue, recorded its highest box office gross last week when A View from the Bridge with Ken Stott took "in excess of £175,000", according to theatre promoter Adam Kenwright.

Duet For One, starring Juliet Stevenson as a violinist with multiple sclerosis, is also transferring, from the Almeida to the Vaudeville, after daily queues for returns. Nica Burns, president of the Society of London Theatre, said: "I can't believe we're going to go through a year with this kind of recession without having a few knockbacks.

"But going to the theatre is still something people are going to do as long as there's a show they want to see badly enough."

Theatre is set to win in other ways from the recession as visitor numbers from Europe are the best for six years. The dollar is at its strongest for 20 years, prompting hopes that US tourists might return.