A foyer moment
Have you ever stood in the foyer before curtain up and thought: “We know these people. We’ve seen them for years.” That’s both comforting and worrying, isn’t it? Comforting because loyal audiences keep us alive. Worrying because it means there are whole groups of people walking past our theatres every day who never step inside.
When you look at your city, you’ll see two of those groups instantly: tourists and immigrant communities. Both are curious, both have money to spend on culture, and both often skip the theatre simply because no one has bothered to talk to them in their language.
And here’s the truth: multilingual marketing isn’t about political correctness or ticking boxes. It’s about filling seats. In an era when many of us are scraping to hit sales targets, leaving these audiences untapped is a luxury we can’t afford.
Why this matters more than ever
Tourists are back. Just ask any hotel manager. Planes are full, museums are crowded, and yet many theatres are not benefitting as much as they could. Why? Because our websites and ads are still mostly in English.
And immigrant communities aren’t “emerging” audiences anymore - they are your city. In Toronto, half the population was born outside Canada. Londoners speak over 300 languages every day. Berlin has Turkish spoken almost as commonly as German in some neighbourhoods. If we only sell in one language, we’re essentially putting up a “members only” sign.
And one more thing: these audiences spend differently. Tourists happily pay for premium seats because they see it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Local immigrant families often come in groups, buying blocks of seats. Both patterns are gold for your bottom line.
Start by asking: who exactly are we missing?
Before jumping to translations, take a step back. Who do you want to reach? This is where some simple detective work pays off.
- Census data will tell you the largest non-English language groups in your city.
- Tourism boards can tell you where most of your international visitors come from. (For example, in Barcelona it’s Germany, France, and the US; in Paris, Chinese visitors are huge.)
- Your box office data might already hold hints. Look at surnames, email domains, or even zip codes. You may already have a trickle of sales from certain groups — that’s where you can start growing.
The key here is focus. Pick two or three languages that really matter for your theatre and do them well. Don’t spread yourself thin.
Translate what actually matters (not everything)
A common fear is: “We can’t afford to translate the whole website!” Good news - you don’t need to.
What you do need to translate:
- Show synopses (people need to know what they’re buying).
- Booking instructions (if they can’t figure out how to pay, they won’t).
- Venue information (address, transport, start times, running times).
That’s the bare minimum.
If you can go a step further, create a simple “first-time guide” in those languages. Tourists especially like knowing things like whether there’s a bar, how early to arrive, or if jeans are acceptable. (Spoiler: they usually are, but people worry about these things.)
And please - don’t just copy-paste Google Translate. Theatre vocabulary rarely comes out right. Pay for a native speaker who knows cultural nuance. A mistranslated word can look sloppy and put people off immediately.
Being findable is half the battle
Imagine a family in Madrid typing “entradas teatro Londres” into Google. If your theatre doesn’t show up, you’ve already lost.
This is where a little SEO housekeeping helps:
- Create proper pages for each language with their own URLs (like
/es/shows). - Translate the meta titles and descriptions too.
- Use hreflang tags (your web team will know what this means — it tells Google who to show the page to).
- Don’t hide translations in PDFs. Search engines can’t read them.
It sounds technical, but the idea is simple: if you want to be found in another language, you have to be visible in it.
Getting the word out
Even with translated pages, you can’t just sit back and hope. People need to see you.
- Tourists: Work with hotels, airlines, and tour operators. Slip multilingual flyers into hotel welcome packs. Ask your tourism board to list you on their multilingual site. Run small Google Ads campaigns targeting people searching “musicals in London” in Spanish, French, or Mandarin.
- Local immigrant communities: Advertise in local-language media. Partner with cultural associations. Run targeted social ads that appear only to people who set Facebook to their native language.
And remember: context matters. A German tourist in London and a Turkish family who live down the street both benefit from translated marketing, but the tone should be different. The tourist message might be “See a West End classic while you’re here!” while the local one could be “Bring the family for an unforgettable night in your neighbourhood theatre.”
Making the visit itself multilingual
Marketing gets people through the door. But if everything stops at the box office, they might not return.
Small changes make a big difference:
- Provide surtitles or captions in key languages (tools like Captitles make this easier than you think).
- Translate programmes or at least offer a digital PDF.
- Train front-of-house staff in simple greetings.
- Use bilingual signage for basics like cloakroom, toilets, and bar.
These touches send a clear signal: you belong here.
A real-world example: Paris
Paris has figured this out. Some venues run entire English-language seasons marketed directly at tourists. Others keep French productions but add English surtitles. Hotels promote them. Travel agencies include tickets in packages.
The result? Packed houses with international audiences who happily pay top tier for the experience. This could work in almost any major city - but most theatres simply haven’t made the leap.
Common pushbacks
“It’s too expensive.” Start small. Translate your biggest shows into just two languages. See the return. Build from there.
“We don’t have bilingual staff.” You don’t need many. A few greetings and some clear signage is enough.
“Our regulars won’t like it.” In practice, most audiences love seeing their theatre embrace diversity. And younger patrons expect it.
Measuring what works
Like any marketing effort, you want proof. Track:
- Traffic to your translated web pages.
- Sales that come through multilingual ads.
- Group bookings from community outreach.
- Repeat visits from tourists (CRM tags can help).
Once you can show that translation X brought Y in ticket sales, the case makes itself.
One last point: accessibility and multilingual often overlap
If you’re investing in captioning or surtitling for accessibility reasons, you’re already halfway to serving multilingual audiences. A caption system can carry translations just as easily as accessibility text. It’s not just good ethics - it’s good economics.
Wrapping up
Audience development isn’t about inventing new demand. The demand is already there — the tourists who want culture while they’re in town, and the immigrant families who’d love to feel welcome at your venue.
The only thing standing in the way is language.
Start small, pick your languages wisely, translate what matters, and make the visit itself welcoming. Do that, and you won’t just be checking an inclusivity box. You’ll be opening the door to new revenue streams, stronger community ties, and a reputation as a theatre that truly belongs to everyone.
