Hamilton -expensive show and enjoyment spoilt by uncomfortable seats.

[user68901]

Royal circle £325 for myself and 2 daughters. Seats cut into my thigh. Barely room for my feet and knees . No arm rests. The show is quite long and no way will I to go back and see it again at this theatre. Shame, it was a brilliant show. Really disappointed - any one have this experience?

All old theatres have incredibly uncomfortable seats. I know there was a massive renovation for Hamilton but I doubt the seats changed size. I went to see Come From Away at the Phoenix last week and by the end I couldn’t feel my knees as there was so little legroom. Mamma Mia was also not great for comfort.

Wicked however has v comfy seats.

Under - I'd never noticed seats before at any of the shows i'd been to (so must have been ok) . Unfortunately didn't like Wicked enough to go back again !

Yes, all the old West End theatres have very cramped seating conditions in at least some seats — paying big money for popular shows doesn’t guarantee anything.

I went recently and yes very uncomfortable seats. I did have arm rests but my legs were digging into the seat in front of me and I have relatively short legs. I would still go again though because I loved the show so much! I had cheaper seats though, paid 37.50 each.

me (very fat) and dp (very tall) had no problem with the seats. Not the most comfortable ever but certainly nothing was ruined

Yes, I have had this too. I am 6ft 2 and don’t go very often now as it isn’t worth the pain. I did get to see Wicked when it came to Cardiff though and the seats there were great

I went about a year ago with my daughter- both of us are tall and the seats were fine. However, the theatre was bloody cold. All worth it for an extraordinary show.

How tall are you? I’m 5 2 but a little overweight and theatre seats are small but not uncomfortable.

We sat in a box. 37.50 and as much room as you like sitting on a dining room chair with a little table for your wine.

I'm going to see Hamilton in a couple of months with my daughter. I've booked the £37.50 seats (more than I pay to see anything locally and with the additional cost of train fare and meals I didn't think I could justify paying more than that).

A few days after booking I found a website that had seat reviews for different theatres. I've spent the last few months thinking that I should have bitten the bullet and paid more for better seats.
After reading the OP, I'm glad that I didn't.

We had stalls seats and had no comfort issues and definitely had arm rests (just re-looked at photos).

I had no problem with hamilton seats (ive seen it a handful of times in a variety of the cheaper seats).

Im overweight but i am only 5'5 and go with my niece who is slimmer and and under 5 ft, so maybe that helps?

I think leg room is the killer for most people. For us we have to check the rake of the theatre so my neice has a better chance of seeing

Id really recommend Theatre monkey for their seat reviews.

I also try and get aisle seats because i hate being in the middle of rows, but middle is normally a better view. Also allows us more opportunity to see round tall people!

We had stall seats too about 4/5 rows from the front and had no issues whatsoever. I am a size 16/18 and husband has cerebral palsey and no issues with comfortability.

What a show though 😃

Stalls I think was 90 per seat and was fine.

I went to see The 39 Steps and seating was hilarious / terrible. I am just over 5 foot so by no means tall but the curve of the backrest from the chair in front of me meant that my knees didn't fit if I sat straight forward. I literally had no choice but to sit through the whole thing with my legs akimbo, one knee either side of the backrest in front. Humiliating in the extreme!

Unfortunately I think it's just part and parcel of all old theatres in London.

I sat in those seats for Hamilton and found them very uncomfortable too and the person I was with ended up unable to walk the next day due to the pressure on her knees for the duration of the performance. We also struggled with vertigo and a lack of safe railings to help us down the stairs and into our seats as it’s quite steep. I’m slim, of average height 5’4, active and in my 30s. A woman behind me had the same problem and ended up tipping her wine all over my lovely cream top which was dry clean only (first time I’d worn it too!). Would never book to see a show in the Royal Circle there ever again!

I had seats in the Albert box. Again it was like 4 dining room chairs. Could see stage but not the platform where the performers walk around. I paid £57 each for the seats and I would do it again if only because I could push the chair right back and stretch my legs. Also dd has add and it gave her opportunity to stand up with out pissing anyone else off.

Yes the box seats I always avoid beca they have a restricted view but there are upsides, if you need to stand up, move around or go to the loo it's much easier so def suits some people more than others. I too try to get the aisle.

Harry potter, we were in the cheap seats (£20pp) and by god they were uncomfy on the legs - we're both 6 foot so it was a case of being bolt upright, legs apart to get them into the bis where 2 seats in front meet.

And all the people in the front row constantly leaned forward and lent on the safety rails, not really caring that that blocked the view for anyone behind them.

Really puts me off theatre when you pay so much for such a rubbish view and uncomfy seats.

The Harry Potter theatre is ENORMOUS. We had 60 quid seats and we really felt like we were a long way from the action. I’d love to go back with good seats but it would be so expensive.

You should complain.

I recently went to see a show at the Hydro in Glasgow which is an ultra-modern arena. My seat was in the front row of the top tier, we had a perspex safety screen in front of us so in effect were watching the show through a window. DD who was next to me could see fine. my view was obscured by an A4 notice with seat numbers on it attached to the perspex screen, so I spent the entire show shifting left and right to be able to see.

Anyway, we complained. With photos of how the view was obscured. The venue have refunded the tickets with an apology.

The Victoria Palace Theatre is a mid-19th century building that is rather beautiful in a wedding cakey-kind of way. It has been saved from the wrecking balls that have demolished that part of Victoria.

I imagine the developers were quite pissed off about that and having to save the pub next door, which was of a similar era.

Granted, most of the other buildings were not at all distinguished, so I wasn't fussed to see them go, even though the new buildings are shit too. Just ugly steel and coloured glass and a missed opportunity.

It's not only a lovely building, inside and out, but has a huge theatrical history and stages world class productions such as Me And My Girl and Billy Elliott . But hey, let's just knock it down or place important productions somewhere else, so you can have a comfy bum, eh, OP?

Perhaps we can turn it into a Wetherspoons. How many times do you want to go and see Hamilton anyway?

^^there's always one... Op says her seat was uncomfortable and @limitedperiodonly turns that into the op wants to knock it down. FFS.

I regularly see shows more than once.

I have NO CLUE why they picked that theatre and when they said they were renovating I thought Hallelujah!

BUT they renovated it badly IMO.
they haven’t improved the rake - it’s still incredibly shallow in the stalls
They could have removed a row or two to in the circles to mprove the spacing particularly given the pricing, which IMO is horrific (and I am a high earner so I feel it’s probably prohibitive for most people)

I was given two tickets (via work) in the stalls worth about £500
The view was fine but we were second row (so you would expect that!) but no way would I have paid that on my own dime