London's theatres enjoyed a record year in 2013, with tickets sales of £586m, up 11% on the previous year. Advance sales, seat occupancy and overall ticket sales were all up.

Ticket sales were boosted by a string of new hit musicals, including The Book of Mormon and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – the latter has just announced that it is now booking through to May 2015 – and smaller but very successful openings such as The Commitments and Once.

Seat occupancy was up by 3.5% to 72.7%, marking the 10th successive year of increased revenue from ticket sales. Theatres also reported that discount sales were down.

Mark Rubinstein, president of the Society of London Theatre (Solt), predicted that, based on advance ticket sales, 2014 will be equally successful: "These figures pay testament to the quality, vibrancy and enduring popularity of the London stage, which, despite a difficult economic climate, continues to pull in the crowds thanks to the world-class entertainment on offer and inclusive pricing structures."

The bumper results were good news for taxpayers, too: Solt points out that the ticket sales also generated VAT receipts of £97,584,409.

Although the number of performances was slightly down, almost 600,000 more tickets were sold in 2013 than in 2012 – average ticket price was a hefty £40.14 – to a total of 14,587,276 theatregoers.

Sales of tickets for musicals were up by 3%, with a total of 8,198,290 tickets sold, but starry casts also attracted audiences. Helen Mirren as the Queen in The Audience and the joint Evening Standard award-winning performances by Adrian Lester as Othello and Rory Kinnear as Iago were particularly hot tickets.

One of the most striking increases was in advance ticket sales, up by 21%. They peaked in December 2013, with a new record set when theatres took in £70m in advance sales.