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From TikTok to Tenor: Study Finds Millennials Fleeing Screens for Standing Ovations

31 Jul 2025

In a development sure to confuse every media exec currently pitching Hamilton as a VR experience, new research from London Theatre Direct suggests that Britain’s under-40s are putting down their phones and picking up programmes. Theatre, it seems, has become the new self-care. Or at least the new spa day with slightly better lighting.

Theatre is apparently self-care now. Pass the tissues. And the programme

According to the study – which combined more than 4,350 responses from regular punters and a YouGov poll – nearly 80 percent of 25 to 39-year-olds who frequent the theatre say it acts as a “digital detox.” No scroll, no swipe, no algorithm shoving content down your throat. Just live humans performing emotional cartwheels in front of you for the price of a Pret lunch and a handling fee. Who knew?

This is not mere escapism. It’s therapy in a velvet seat. Three in four regular theatre-goers say it forms part of their self-care routine, which suggests that while much of the country is meditating on apps and bathing in Gwyneth Paltrow’s moonlight, these people are quietly weeping into plastic prosecco at Dear Evan Hansen and calling it wellness.

Even more curiously, two in five report that the good feeling lasts for days – a sort of post-dramatic glow, if you will. Not only that, but 75 percent say theatre sparks real conversation, which, in a world where “commenting” usually means typing “omg” under a TikTok, feels practically revolutionary.

The report also challenges the idea that theatre is a niche pursuit for dusty people. One in four UK adults rank it among their top three joyful nights out, ahead of cinema, sport and dancing. It’s unclear what kind of joy these respondents find in most nightclubs, but apparently watching a man dressed as a Victorian chimney have a breakdown in iambic pentameter trumps it.

It is not just the metropolitan elite. The data shows audiences outside London are more likely to describe theatre as emotionally resonant. Which makes sense – if your local theatre only gets Blood Brothers once every three years, you are probably going to feel something. Even if it’s just disbelief at the price of interval ice cream.

Naturally, the experts behind the study are delighted. Johan Oosterveld, CEO of London Theatre Direct, called theatre “a space to switch off, reset emotionally, and come away feeling clearer.” Which is certainly one way to describe The Woman in Black. Meanwhile, Joyfulness Approved – a consultancy that sounds like it was founded by sentient mugs from Paperchase – claims theatre is one of the few places people are “fully present.” That may be true. Although if you have ever sat behind someone live-tweeting Cabaret, you will know that presence is, at best, aspirational.

Still, the numbers are compelling. And if nothing else, they remind us of theatre’s stubborn brilliance – that strange, sweaty ritual where hundreds of strangers sit in a dark room and agree to believe, together, for two and a half hours. No filters. No buffering. Just voices, light and silence.

So yes – theatre is apparently self-care now. Pass the tissues. And the programme.

PIC: Donna Easton (L) Nick Ede (R) Co-Founders of Joyfulness Approved
Source: London Theatre Direct

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