Devious promoters who try to attract theatregoers by quoting selectively from reviews face prosecution under new European laws.

The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, which comes into effect in Britain next April, bans promotions that are “likely to deceive the average consumer, even if the information is correct”, provided that it is likely to cause him to buy a ticket. The legislation specifically bans commercial practices that impair appreciably the consumer’s ability to make an informed decision.

For example, the editing of a reviewer’s description of the West End production of Saturday Night Fever from “if it’s an all-out retro romp you want, this only fitfully delivers” to “an all-out retro romp!” would be a criminal offence, lawyers claim.

Simon Gorham, a solicitor at Boodle Hatfield, said: “The key is that the legislation says that any omission of relevant information is also unfair,” he told The Stage newspaper. “However, someone would need to make a test case to see exactly what the impact will be.”

Westminster City Council, which oversees half of London’s theatre district, said that it would contact promoters to inform them of the new law and ask them to stop using misleading quotations. “We would consider legal action if we felt that theatregoers were buying tickets on the basis of misleading endorsements,” said Audrey Lewis, of the council.

A survey carried out by The Times last year found that more than a third of theatres displayed highly selective quotes on their hoardings and some had extracted apparently glowing phrases from the middle of damning sentences.

A poster for The Hound of the Baskervilles at the Duchess Theatre quotes The Times’s praise of its “gut-bustingly hilarious and liberatingly reckless brand of zaniness”. But Donald Hutera, who awarded the show just three stars, said that the actors had yet to achieve such zaniness, and “only then will the show truly levitate”.

One of the most extreme examples in recent months was a quote from The Observer’s review of Sinatra. The hoarding said that the paper had praised the show’s “energy, razzmatazz and technical wizardry”, but the reviewer, Sean O’Hagan, actually wrote: “I couldn’t help feeling that, for all the energy, razzmatazz and technical wizardry, the audience had been shortchanged.”

Anthony Pye-Jeary, whose company, Dewynters, used a one-star review from The Timesto endorse We Will Rock You, defended the practice: “If the words are in the review, that is invariably fair game. If a show hasn’t got any good reviews, you put up the best you can . . . We’d be a bit bonkers to use the negative stuff.”

Nick Allott, managing director of Cameron Mackintosh, said that the new law would put a stop to promoters who regarded selective quoting as a game. “If you take liberties you’re asking to be shot down.”

Sharp editing

“ Fans of Alyson Hannigan and Luke Perry will be ecstatic – their companions will just have to fake an interest”

— Time Out on When Harry Met Sally

“For all its stunning looks – the massive plasma-screens are killer-diller and all the cast have good shoes – We Will Rock You is just too straight. The script remains little more than two-minute blasts of knob gags and misplaced polemic between songs, and the musical numbers have nothing to do with the script”

— The Times on We Will Rock You

“Frank Loesser’s great musical from 1950 is hilarious . . . Grandage’s production often falls somewhat flat . . . The orchestra sounded as if they were all trapped in one loudspeaker”

— Independent on Sunday on Guys and Dolls

“ Dancing in the Streets will be perfect for hen parties, Motown addicts and for a sweaty summer bop. But it is not drama, may not even be proper art, and real music lovers will get a more satisfying hit from attending a proper concert”

— Daily Mail on Dancing in the Streets

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