Doubtfire Daiquiri, madam? How theatres are ramping up the drama with themed cocktails

A drink on the bar is never the spotlight of any journey to the theatre. Beers are swiftly decanted into flexible plastic tumblers; wines are sometimes an underwhelming alternative of “purple, white or fizzy”; and costs might be extortionate. However with most theatre bars opening about 90 minutes earlier than curtain-up, that’s loads of time to kill clutching a mediocre glass of merlot.

Not so at this summer time’s Regent’s Park Open Air theatre revival of Fiddler on the Roof, the place a Matchmaker Mojito (which features a mint chocolate Matchmaker as a swizzle stick) and a Dawn Sundown (a cross between a Buck’s Fizz and a Tequila Dawn) are among the many obtainable drinks. Each cocktails take their inspiration, and their names, from songs from the present.

At London’s Savoy theatre, the stage adaptation of Imply Ladies introduced with it a group of “We drink pink” cocktails, together with a Sugar Punch, a Lychee Bitter and a Pink Sweet, which mixes amaretto, lychee syrup, prosecco, edible glitter and sweet floss. (These can be found on daily basis, “not simply on Wednesdays”, because the menu factors out with a understanding wink to the movie.) Even long-running reveals reminiscent of Depraved have been providing themed drinks, with its goblets of Pink Cocktail and Emerald Elixir.

Typically the connection is clear – see the Doubtfire Daiquiri at Mrs Doubtfire the musical (Shaftesbury theatre). Typically, data of the present in query is required: audiences at Operation Mincemeat (Fortune theatre), for instance, can now order a sangria – not a bespoke cocktail, however a form of interval in-joke.

Tanith Lindon is head of bars, eating and industrial occasions on the Regent’s Park Open Air theatre, and creator of that Matchmaker Mojito. Lindon says: “I attempt to discover one thing inside the themes of every present to hyperlink the cocktail, typically with an entertaining pun to tie it collectively. By far essentially the most profitable present cocktails we’ve created had been for Legally Blonde. We provided an OMG&T, which was a pink gin and tonic with a sweet floss tuft on high; and a Bend and Schnapps, which was one other deliciously pink concoction. We had an extremely engaged, principally feminine, viewers, who usually purchase extra cocktails, and themed cocktails far outsold every other drinks.”

It’s maybe best to create customized drinks within the West Finish, the place reveals take up residency for weeks if not months, reasonably than small or regional theatres, which frequently host a manufacturing for a short while. However on the Bristol Previous Vic, customized drinks are “one thing we at all times attempt to do with our reveals”, says the theatre’s head of hospitality and occasions, Ryan Garvey. Earlier this 12 months, they created a Raspberry Fizz cocktail, named after one of many musical numbers of their manufacturing of Starter for Ten. For Gurt Haunted, a present taking part in close to Halloween, he says they plan to supply themed drinks, “together with haunted and glowing cocktails”.

Stage performs are getting the bespoke drinks therapy too. Earlier this 12 months, the stage adaptation of sci-fi thriller Minority Report on the Lyric Hammersmith theatre in west London impressed cocktails together with a Dame Julia and a Precognition. Earlier than that, the Could/June manufacturing of Alice Childress’s Sixties drama Wedding ceremony Band was accompanied by cocktails together with Planters Punch, Dragoons Punch and Cherry Bounce.

However with theatre tickets typically prohibitively costly, will patrons be postpone by the added expense of a bespoke cocktail? Paul Gallagher, industrial director on the Lyric Hammersmith, says: “When prospects are paying generally comparatively fairly excessive [ticket] costs, they’re typically inclined to proceed that ‘deal with’ of an evening out on the theatre with further purchases. Cocktails are instance of an add-on that’s extra particular than only a beer or wine.” When the cocktail is themed and packaged as a part of the expertise, they’ve discovered that theatregoers are extra inclined to indulge.

Paddy Ratcliffe, head of bars on the Nationwide Theatre, says customized cocktails aren’t match for each present. “A storytelling component is essential,” he says. “Final 12 months, we had The Witches, which was child pleasant, and Method 86 is one thing which options within the present, so we created a mocktail for them. It’s a purple potion, so we used lemonade, cranberry juice and violet syrup. For the adults, that they had the chance to ‘spike’ it with vodka or gin. It was amazingly profitable.” Final 12 months, he additionally created a cocktail named Candy Caroline for James Graham’s Expensive England: “It actually was loads of enjoyable, with purple grenadine drizzled on high for these England colors.”

Naturally, social media additionally performs its function; attention-grabbing and aesthetically pleasing cocktails are splendid Instagram fodder – particularly if they arrive with a pun-heavy identify. “We live in a world the place individuals wish to doc the attention-grabbing issues they’re doing,” agrees Ratcliffe. “After we do extra vibrant, playful drinks, persons are getting pictures of themselves consuming it subsequent to the poster for the present, or with their tickets.”

In fact, some patrons are at all times going to select a pint over, say, an Emerald Elixir – however there are a lot who’re keen to be lured by one thing somewhat out of the peculiar. Bespoke cocktails at all times promote, says Lindon, “however sure demographics purchase them in higher portions … a youthful theatregoer is extra seemingly to purchase a champagne cocktail than a glass of champagne. I attempt to put one thing on the menu which may tempt them away from their ordinary pint or glass of home wine, and create one thing which you could’t get in every other West Finish theatre.”

Because the autumn theatre season begins, what could be subsequent on theatre bar menus? A Prospero’s Storm (I’m picturing a twist on the traditional Darkish’n’Stormy) for The Tempest at Theatre Royal Drury Lane? Or The Satan Wears Grappa for the switch of the musical adaptation of the 00s traditional to the West Finish? If there’s an alternative choice than a plastic flute of lukewarm prosecco, I’m in.