Theatres could get live ads

One of the last taboos in theatre could soon be broken with the introduction of live advertisements on stage.

Scripted "commercials" will be piloted at the Apollo in Victoria next month. It successful they could change the face of theatre forever.

The cast of Saturday Night Fever will act out advertisements for products including McDonald's, Heinz and Kellogg's during breaks in the performance on 1 March.

The script of the musical and lyrics to some of the songs have even been changed to plug the brands.

The stunt is being organised by London advertising agency Leo Burnett, which plans to sell tickets for the performance to raise £30,000 for Comic Relief. But agency bosses say the idea could be adopted for commercial shows.

"It's never been done but I've always thought it should," said creative director Jim Thornton. "It will be an interesting experiment." A former drama graduate, he added: "One of the things that annoys me about theatre is its intellectual snobbery.

"They do product placement - if you look at any programme, it will be 'thank you to so-and-so for providing the beer on stage', and they have sponsorship."

One senior industry figure, who asked not to be named, said: "The question has to be, would the audience really tolerate it? I very much doubt they would."