The Palace Theatre, which has been fighting for survival in recent years, has chalked up its most successful autumn season ever in its 40-year history.

The 51 performances at the Westcliff theatre sold 22,500 seats over the two months they were on sale.

This equates to an average attendance of more than 400 seats sold for each show and the theatre achieved 75 per cent capacity overall. Many performances sold out completely.

The council-owned theatre has struggled when run by private companies, but is now thriving under the council's own management.

Charles Mumford, director of programming and general manager for Southend Theatres, said: "We are really delighted to have achieved this remarkable turnaround in the Palace Theatre's fortunes this autumn.

"Not many other regional theatres with the capacity of the Palace will be able to match this achievement.

"It has been a tremendous team effort by all the theatre staff in winning back our audience so convincingly."

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