To think the price of tickets for theatre are insane

[Chopbob]

I was looking to booking Beauty and the beast on stage in Manchester for my dd birthday, but omg-how expensive!!!!!
Whilst they offer a very small number of tickets for £20 each (a tiny number, all restricted views) the tickets start around £40 each and go up to £100. For a children's show. In Manchester.
A family of 4 would be looking at £160-£400 for one, single kids show.
AIBU to think this is completely insane? Or am I completely out of touch?

@throughtheair - I says there aren't many, not that there aren't any. They're mostly for younger children too.

Yy to cheap opera for young people! I think it was the Welsh national that did £5 tickets for under 30s, not sure if that's still going.

I'm quite passionate about theatre being accessible to everybody and there really are ways to afford it if you look beyond the obvious West end style shows.

We thought about going to see it but couldn't justify doing so because of the price.
We do go to the theatre but I always check prices first.

theatre productions aren't even that good anymore.

the big london shows seem a bit diluted, forced even

smaller theatres are not much better either

@iklboo you listed the big 4 and pantos so I thought perhaps you weren't aware there were other options in Manchester all year round.

I do agree they are usually tailored towards younger children but lots of posters on here will fit that demographic, so worth people checking out what's around them.

I was just thinking this yesterday. There's lots I want to see but just too expensive.

I don't usually bother with obvious typos and autocorrect fails unless they're relevant (have plenty myself), but there are exceptions. One time was when someone squared up to me swearing to "outspell you any day" before dropping a completely garbled shitpost. Another time is "gonorrhea theatre".

Sorry, @Dishwashersaurous, I know you saw it straight away and everyone's mentioned it, but I had to jump in. It's made my night. Thank you. Although I suppose a gonorrhoea theatre (as they'd be in the UK) has no business charging that much.

It’s very expensive I agree. It’s basically weekend away kind of budget for us all to go the theatre. I really want to take both kids to see the lion king as one has seen it already before lockdown but for 4 tickets plus return train to London it’s probably around £500 and that’s without food or staying over.

It is expensive but it is what it is I suppose. I like to support the arts so I'm willing to pay. I just paid €350 to go see the lion king and it was worth every cent!

@Chopbob have you checked for a relaxed performance? They are usually much cheaper tickets.

I totally agree though - it’s so expensive. I’m taking my Dd (4) for her birthday and I couldn’t quite believe how much it was.

Many theatres are in old buildings. Maintaining/repairing/upgrading/insuring a building that may be well over a hundred years old to meet modern requirements must cost a fortune.

Yes they are v expensive, but everythings gone up yetthe inlynpeople who really lost out were the self employedI everyone rose might have missed out on profits, but seriously those of us who vould carried on working and those of us on furlough didn't take home much less than a normal salary (without overtime, admittedly). Si why gas everything been inflated???? A small portion is brexit red tape obvs but I think organisations are trying yo recoup profits they never made.

BTW, I paid £150 per tickets to see phantom - good seats and £95 for Jersey boys again good seats, but I was expecting £50-60! Your tickets sound cheap to me.....

Agreed. I've just been reading a book about Denmark, where apparently theatre is heavily subsidised in order to be fully accessible. I hadn't really given much thought before to this, but of course it does basically mean theatre in the UK is only accessible to the very highest tiers of society. We're lucky to live pretty comfortably, but I can't bring myself to pay for the theatre - so expensive and often awful, cramped seats.

Having said that, DH and I went to a local theatre recently which was about £20 a ticket - we were in the gods, but it was a small theatre, so every seat is good. We're also going to see Cursed Child later this year (all 4 of us) - I managed to get cheap seats 3 years ago (our visit has been postponed 3 times now - my DD who we bought for as a birthday gift has now completely outgrown HP 😂).

I totally agree. We went to see 9-5 last week, it cost us £55 each.Great show, but as a pensioner it's an occasional treat.

Even our local AmDram is doing a family friendly production which is £15 per adult and £10 per child - that's £50 for a family of 4 to sit in the church for a performance by local enthusiasts! I'm sure they aren't aiming to even make a profit but there's a mis-match somewhere when even amateur theatre costs the equivalent of a week's food.

I know it’s not quite the same but if you like theatre look out for local amateur shows. They do vary in quality but mostly if they have their own venue they are very good.
At my local theatre it would be £50 for a family of 4 to see a musical or panto so quite different to the prices you are discussing. X

YANBU OP, the only reason I don’t go to the theatre

caravan concerns
Interesting cross post. I do think amateur theatre varies wildly in quality! X

I'm in suburban London/Kent. Our local smallish theatres are about £35-£50 for a ticket. Panto for our family of four wouldn't leave much change out of £200. It's a shame as I love going to the theatre but I really can't justify the cost

@throughtheair - I live in Manchester.

There used to be more but quite a few have shut, more so after the pandemic. It's a shame because I was brought up going to the theatre, DS(16) has been to a lot of shows. Now the tweens / teens don't have much for their tastes apart from the big four.

Bolton Little Theatre is a cracker when they do the family friendly shows and very affordable.

We have small local theatres that do smaller children's shows for £10-£15 per ticket for unallocated seats. Dont get me wrong, they're not massive shows, but it's much more affordable than the bigger shows at bigger theatres.

Like another poster I use TodayTix. I’ve had some amazing seats for around £25/30, some booked on the day and others booked in advance.

@smileyaxolotl1 yes a very funny cross post! Our local amateur theatre company are lovely but we live in a small town and it's a small pool. Hard to justify that kind of money for it really.

For those in London, use the app TIX. I don’t know if it works in other cities.
We go to the theatre at least once per month, we went 4 times in December. All the top west end shows. Premium seats in the front of the stalls. I never pay more than £30 per ticket.
There are other websites and “audience clubs” that also sell off the spare seats last minute for a fraction of the price. Most people in the theatres haven’t paid full price.