Has anyone been to the theatre and felt it was overrated?

[flowersintheatticus]

I know going to the theatre is a regular thing for mumsnet, but geographically this isn't possible so going is a really big thing and will require a lot of money, not just for the tickets but for travel there and back. My teens haven't been and I feel I want to give them the experience. I checked out our nearest place and there is a short clip of each of the performances. One of them is a childhood favourite book/tv adaption and thought that would be a good one to go for. However the clip was very underwhelming. I'm sure the acting/set/effects are great but it didn't do anything for me. I'm not sure if it's because the characters look nothing like the tv ones or that the animal character was just a head, but I felt no inclination to watch and I think if I'd gone in person I'd be disappointed.

Yes, that was the one. It really was magnificent, wasn't it? It was genuinely something that both adults (including childless adults, so not just there to humour the kids!) and children fully enjoyed.

What I would add to the many sensible answers here is that more expensive doesn't necessarily mean better. I saw an amateur production of "A Christmas Carol" in Bexleyheath about 30 years ago and I'd still rate it the best play I've seen!

Is there no small theatre putting on amateur shows on the island you are on? I've never paid £70 per ticket for a theatre show, even when we've been to the West End. We took SD to see Matilda when she was 8 and I think it was around £55 a ticket. Smaller theatres like the Lowry are only around £30pp.

Surely that show isn't suitable for teens OP? It's more of a kids show. They aren't going to enjoy that. Better to choose something they'll be invested in? Are they into jazz hands type stuff / musicals or are they a bit cooler and might enjoy Stranger Things or something?

Omg yes WarHorse is absolutely amazing 😭😭

Some I have been to and I was so immersed in it and loved it so much that I can still feel that feeling even 40 years on. We lived near (ish) Stratford when I was young and went 4 or 5 times to see plays as a teenager and they were so moving.

I love the presence of actors on stage and that feeling of an audience all holding their breath or laughing at once. I'm not at all artistic or lovey but there is for me something special about the theatre.

I think what I'm trying to say is that if your kids don't have the opportunity through school to go then maybe research a good play and pay to take them in case they absolutely bloody love it.

(And yes, OMG War Horse, and Wolf Hall at the Swan Theatre)

@flowersintheatticus we don't live on the mainland either and getting to London is a treat. But our local theatre put on some amazing shows, a couple recently were better than when I saw them in London...(though others I have slunk out of to go to the pub...)

I was taken a lot as a child and teenager and always found it highly cheesy. Honestly, it feels like watching all the show-off types from school. It’s not something I choose to do as an adult.

I appreciate a good set design, that’s about it.

This made me laugh, and was very much the feeling I got when I watched the trailer for LWW! I don't like pantomines either, went every year as a child and it always felt a bit low brow. (Disclaimer: the villian always had a put-on accent of the 'rough' part of town and I really didn't like that stereotyping).

There is a small theatre company fairly near me that's in a church hall. Nothing appeals to me though, it's mostly comedy night stuff or monologue type of thing. No 'productions' as such. When I said theatre I meant a proper theatre, rather than a school assembly hall. I've been to plenty of those 'theatres'.

One if the best things I've seen was a two man touring production of... Thunderbirds. They were racing about with Thunderbird model hats, with all the fab music from the series.

Loved Standing at the Sky's Edge

@OriginalUsername2 I feel a bit like that about theatre.

If I have a limited budget to spend on entertainment, I go to musicals (occasionally), cinema, classical music or nights out/dining out.

I find a lot of theatre quite painful, I don't know why. I prefer musicals as all that overacting seems in place.

We love musical theatre, I wouldn't enjoy a play.

When we were in the uk in 2018, I told DD's that we could see one show with decent seats or a few with cheap seats. They opted for cheap seats. We saw 4 shows in the end, one was 35pound pp, the others 25pp. For 2 of them we were upgraded as they hadn't sold many of the cheap seats so weren't opening up the upper balcony, and we ended up with brilliant seats. I'd assume that won't happen on a Saturday night, we were there mid week, but when we come again next year, we'll take our chances on the cheap seats again!

I've been to a few.

Mousetrap - terrible. I fell asleep
Hamilton - I enjoyed but had no idea what was going on as I wasn't familiar with the history
Cursed Child - incredible special effects, want to say I loved it but found some of the acting a bit overdone. Also fell asleep.
Women on the verge of HRT - painfully overacted, but the rest of the audience seemed to love it.

I used to go to a lot of opera and enjoyed it in the past, but in recent years I have no tolerance and can just find it a bit screechy.

We went to shrek the musical with the kids about 10 years ago and didn't have high expectations- we loved it.

I much prefer going to am dram productions.

Me and DH love the theatre and try and go a few times a year. The West End prices are ridiculous but there are deals to be had - we book through TodayTix or look for advance ticket offers. We love a musical and also going to the opera and ballet and don't mind being higher in the theatre for those so go for the more affordable seats.

We've got some good local theatres near us which get the touring productions so we've seen things at a fraction of the West End prices. Me, my sister-in-law and a friend saw Six locally in the summer, we were in the stalls about 10/15 rows from the front and our tickets were £42 each. Same seats in the West End would have been around £100 I imagine.

Yes, we've seen things that we've liked more than others, and Heathcliffe (the musical that was Cliff Richard's vanity project) was downright awful, but by and large we've had a great time.

Cineworld often show live London theatre productions and it can be a good way of getting an idea of if you'd like to watch a show in an actual theatre before spending out too much. Obviously you don't get to experience the special effects in the same way, but it is good.

I watched Phantom of the Opera at the weekend and enjoyed it.

See, I hated every single second of this.

We all have different tastes!

I was the pp who mentioned i had priced up taking my family of 5 to the west end and it was going to be upwards of £700…however this was to see either the new run of Oliver, or Matilda, in the Christmas holidays, in the west end. So probably the most expensive tickets you could ever be tryjng to buy! It was the same a couple of yrs ago when I priced up Frozen, again in Xmas hols.

My point was I can’t justify the price as these things are always hit and miss, and if the youngest child got bored and wanted to leave I would be furious lol because that would be nearly all of our christmas budget put towards that one eve. But someone out there must be paying the prices as there’s only a few seats left. And also it’s kind of sad because a musical or ballet in London at Christmas seems like a lovely thing to do as a family each yr, but it is prohibitively expensive.

most of the big west end productions I’ve seen have been at the Ambassadors theatre in Woking, as they seem to come on tour there. When I saw Matilda we paid about £25 a ticket in the west end, but that was mid week quite a long time before the film came out.

Our little cinema does a lot of theatre to screen, it's a great way to try it out without the travel and ticket costs and of course you get the best seats 😁 I go often and took my grandson to see The Prince of Egypt, it was amazing and would definitely take him to see Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe 😃

Agree with this. Professional critics are rude about amateur bloggers and the like. But if you find one whose taste matches yours, it can be really helpful.