London Theatre £££££

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When did West End theatre become so expensive? I've been looking at tickets for Sunday in the Park with George and half way decent seats are £200-£300 each! I understand that it's a limited run and also has the added attraction of Jake Gyllenhaal as a big star but those prices are insane (I went to see him in This is Our Youth 18 years ago and I'm sure tickets were about £30-£40!)

My mum has always said it's not worth going if you're seated in the dress circle but is this really the case? Circle tickets are a bit more realistic at £50ish

Admittedly DH and I haven't been to the theatre in about 10 years (pre DC) so I'm probably super out of the loop of what patrons are willing to pay.

I was going to second the advice to look at seatplan.com. It's really useful for choosing seats. I've had some recently that were sold as restricted view, but when you look at seatplan you can see that actually the view is completely fine.

I think it depends on the show. I'm not bothered about celebrity actors (one of the upsides of face blindness: I wouldn't recognise who's famous and who isn't ) but some shows have much more going on in the stalls. If it's the sort of show which is 'just' on stage, i.e. a classic theatre piece, then I wouldn't mind where I sat as long as I could see and hear what was going on. e.g. at the Globe/Sam Wannamaker I always get a seat (rather than standing) and they're all pretty good, except the ones directly behind a pillar, particularly since it's a small space. However, there are other shows which have action off-stage, using the aisles and the wings, e.g. Lion King, Matilda ... we saw The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe over Christmas and they were all over the theatre at various points. For something like that I think it's worth paying extra to be in the stalls, if there are decent stalls seats available, you really miss out on some of the experience by not being immersed in it. But I'd rather have the front row of the dress circle than the back row of the stalls in a big theatre.

@ComeFromAway Cyrano was honestly incredible! I'd recommend seeing it if you can get tickets/to London. However, if not it's on the cinemas for NT Live from 20 February.

Have a look at the lotteries for tickets as well. Matilda, school of rock, Hamilton, and others, have a lottery you can enter for very cheap stalls seats. It's a bit of admin but we've had a good hit rate (except on Hamilton which I paid lots of money to see instead and it was worth every penny!)

Theatre ticket prices seem to have rocketed lately IMO. I regularly go and have never usually spent more than about £30/40 per ticket - yet lately the tickets all seem to be tons more.

I prefer the circle to the stalls personally.

But yes tickets are extortionate nowadays- and they’ve the nerve to change a booking fee on top!

Sunday in the Park with George is riciculously priced.

I've seen Legally Blonde & Dreamgirls at The Savoy and both times sat in the rear of the circle. The view was fine. A London theatre trip is a treat for us so I always make sure we have good seats but trying to avoid the premium prices. I use the SeatPlan website to find out what views are like

dress Circle Row K seat 20

The savoy is such a lovely theatre. There are £30 tickets for the previews and cheaper tickets at the back for the remaining run.

Of course the seats in dress or grand circle are alright or they wouldn't fill them. (I am nearly always up in the gods!)

There are ways of getting better priced tickets - my son and I saw Come from Away for £17.50 each - using the Kids Week offer. Everybody's talking about Jamie for £25 on a Sat night. Touring theatre locally has allowed me to see NT shows for £15 in the back back row and local amateur shows - we are off to Shrek this summer for about £20 each.

However, I wouldn't take your husband if he's not a fan of musical threatre - I don't think Sunday is the most gripping of shows for a non MT enthusiast......

@Mumdiva99 how can I find the preview tickets please? Do you have a link?

West End theatres aren’t that big. Check your seats on theatre monkey and go for the stalls.

Be thankful that we don’t pay Broadway prices! Tickets can easily be thousands. When Hamilton first opened in London it was cheaper for some friends of mine to fly over for the weekend from NY and see it here than to sit in comparable stalls seats on Broadway.

I get cheap tickets all the time. I would rather see 10 things at 20-40 pound a ticket than 3 things at 70-100 pound.

What I do:

Sign up to pre-release lists
Things that are guaranteed a long run, wait til the fuss dies down
Sign up to emails from all the cheap ticketing lists
Grab a bargain towards the end of the run

I’ve seen most things currently in London

@EstebanTheMagnificent That's true. I went to see Saturday Night Fever on Broadway in 2000. I was a studying in the States at the time and we queued up for cheap tickets but I can remember them being almost double the price of the West End.

We just got the Disney frozen tickets for £20 each, admittedly at the back 😁

The top price seats are extortionate but I sit higher up and further back and usually pay about £30 to £50. I check seat plan websites to make sure that the seat doesn't have a restricted view and have never had a problem.

Leg space is pretty rubbish for most West End theatres. I suppose because they're old. Theatres seem to be more comfortable if you go slightly further out. I went to the National and to the Almeida for the first time in the summer and they were both really nice.

saddens me how expensive the theatre is- even the "cheap" seats would set a family of 4 back nearly £300. I went to the theatre a lot as a child, I doubt I will take my daughter as much.

you just gotta be savy- i go mid week and either get last minute tix on the day at th tkts booth for things - short runs / very popular ones cost more obv - but you can get crap seats for a bit cheaper - i like being up high anyway feel like i can see better - no tall person in front able to block my view!!

I got tickets for Harry Potter for 20£ for each part - had to get them a year in advance though! But well worth it

The previews are the first week. £25 tickets left 8 to 10th June. Slightly restricted view. Or £30 tickets no restricted view.

Yes, the National is brilliant - the tickets are often very good value thanks to subsidies and big sponsors, and the theatres were built with sightlines in mind. There literally isn't a bad seat in the Olivier auditorium. Sign up to their mailing lists and try to see things there before they transfer to the West End!

I would choose dress circle every time. I much prefer looking down on the stage to looking up at it. And yes, Come From Away is brilliant.

Hello Camefromaway, this could get confusing!

you just gotta be savy- i go mid week

That's ok if you live in London. Not practical for those of us who live a train ride away and work during the week.

Oh gosh, yes, hello @Comefromaway!

They won best new musical today in the Critics Circle Awards today, bless their lovely selves

Tell you what, I’ll do a quick name change