to think theatre prices are extortionate...

[GingerOClock]

we are a family of five. I have been wanting to take the children to a London production for yonks. We missed out on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and now I would love to take them to see Matilda, but for half decent seats we'd be looking at the same price as our week long camping holiday! Am I missing something? Is there a way to do it cheaper? I feel they are missing out on such a great experience.

Get enough of you together to get a group discount?

Yes we are a family of five and were looking at the Lion king and it was something like £70 for the cheapest ticket. We saw matilda when the West end production came to our home town and it was about £30 a ticket.

A friend told me about this - livemore.yha.org.uk/things-to-do/london-west-end-theatre

On Wednesday evenings YHA have tickets for a good price - I'm not sure if you have to be staying at the YHA or just a member, but it might be worth checking. They usually know a few weeks in advance what show it will be, so you can check it's one you are interested in.

Look out for kidsweek (August) and Get into London Theatre(January) for discounts. Also the ticket booth in Leicester Square sometimes has same/next day tickets.

We only go for good seats at the big shows in August, during Kids Week.

The rest of the time we slum it in cheap seats, smaller shows or just go with one child at a time.

Some theatres are excellent. We have cheap Hamilton tickets booked, and I really don't think there's a 'bad' seat in the house.

Matilda is touring next year I am a theatre member it is a yearly feewe always get reduced tickets for touring shows yanbu though tickets are expensive.

I didn't know about kids week - that's good to know! Will look at Get into London too. The kids love Matilda so would be great to take them to see it on stage

How do you think they pay the cast, crew and orchestra? They all need to eat and pay rent - in London!

West End theatre prices are extortionate. But there’s masses and masses of theatre happening elsewhere - suitable for all ages and tastes. For the price of one Matilda you could probably go to half a dozen shows at smaller places.

(But it’s hard to be specific without knowing roughly where in the country you are!)

It’s expensive, but it’s not overpriced because putting on a show in the west end is a hugely expensive business.

Once the initial costs of putting on a show are over there’s weekly running costs. For Matilda it’ll be something like-

Hire of the theatre (the producers of the show and the bricks and mortar owners are usually different entities)
Running maintenance on set and costumes
Hire of lighting equipment
Hire of sound equipment
Hire of automated staging
Staff wages, this will be cleaners, bar staff, ushers, box office staff, theatre management, stage door keepers (these may be included in the theatre hire fee) then show staff which will be Stage electricians, follow spotters, stage crew, flymen, automation operators, stage management, wigs and wardrobe, sound operators, understudies, main cast, band and associate directors who run rehearsals, of which there will be many because of the young cast.

The producers at the bare minimum to keep the show running have to break even. Most west end theatres seat between 500 to 800, and won’t be full Monday (if they open Monday) through Thursday outside of holiday weeks.

We are in Wiltshire QuaterMiss

I agree. Theatre is only for the wealthy for the big shows.

This is our local www.wiltshirecreative.co.uk/whats-on/

As a pp suggested, you can try Kids Week (although I think they have a pretty small allocation for popular shows, so you have to be both quick off the mark and lucky to get them). Or try the cheap seats. They're a long way up, but you still get a clear view and the full experience. I have sat at the very back of that theatre and they were only about £20. I won't lie, it's obviously not the best view, but it's still the whole experience.

Salisbury Playhouse had many amazing productions when I was at school - not sure if that’s still the case. Lots of the touring musicals go to southampton Mayflower.

Ah! (Are you going to the live screening of Lear in a couple of weeks?)

You surely have lots of choice - slap bang between Bristol and Oxford! Have you exhausted all of these places? (I know one can tire of the local theatre, no matter how brilliant, if everything’s directed by the same team for instance.)

The Oxford Playhouse and The North Wall always seem to have lots going on. And there must be shows/ plays you could take your children to in Bath?

I’m not at all suggesting the West End isn’t for the likes of you - just that your theatre experience might be limited if you only do that!

I agree. Theatre is only for the wealthy for the big shows.
Not necessarily, as long as you are prepared to be flexible and go at the last minute, you can get cheap tickets for most shows.

Only for the wealthy? I haven't paid more than £20 to see any West End show in my life. I sit up in the God's and am happy to take the limited view seats and sit forward to get the full view. I once paid £15 for a standing opera ticket, and snaffled a seat after the 2nd act opened (with permission of the usher). Some idiot had paid over £200 for that seat and just not turned up?! Weird.

It is impossible to get tickets for the big shows in kids’ week. I’ve tried for Lion King or Matilda for the last few years, and just spend a frustrating few hours refreshing web pages before giving up and getting tickets to some random show like the gruffalo.

Hire of the theatre (the producers of the show and the bricks and mortar owners are usually different entities)

And many W End theatres are old and must cost a lot to maintain and keep up to required standards. Hiring won't be cheap.

but for half decent seats we'd be looking at the same price as our week long camping holiday!

Going to the theatre is our family holiday. We usually travel up on the train using a railcard and book a couple of shows on the Kidsweek deal or any other special offers. When we went to see Matilda a few years ago the tickets cost £35 each for me and dh and the children were free. The Cambridge is a small theatre so its a decent view everywhere. We saw Dreamgirls a few weeks ago for £39.50 each me and dh (kids free). Great seats in the dress circle just a bit further back.

I check out seat reviews on Theatremonkey and Seating PLan.com and rarely go for top price.

The tour of Matilda were offering 4 tickets for £120 recently in Manchester.

Welcome Performances at the Royal Opera House are fairly cheap.
I've never taken mine to the west end but we've been to the ballet twice.

There's always a lot on at the Wyvern Theatre in Swindon as well OP.

Shows I've seen during Kidsweek are:

Wicked, Mamma Mia, Les Miserables, The Railway Children, Matilda, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Billy Elliot, Kinky Boots, The Bodyguard, Beautiful, An American in Paris, Everybidy's Talking About Jamie & Dreamgirls.

MissLingoss you’re not wrong, I’ve worked in many west end theatres and they’re a complete pita to keep running. Not to mention modern audiences (not unreasonably) want things like decent disabled access, plenty of toilets, air con, legroom, none of which the theatres were designed to have in the first place.

The actors don’t have it any better though. I’ve worked on shows with big name a listers in where they were using tiny dressing rooms up steep flights of stairs with shared toilet facilities.