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?

A touring theatre came to the palace ruins in our village. Open air theatre. Sounds good. But it was £17 per ticket, to bring your own blanket and umbrella and sit on the grass. No thanks!

£17 for a whole evening of live entertainment, and no mark up on food/drink? That’s brilliant! Take a folding chair and you’ll be all set.

[quote throughtheair]@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles

In simple terms the value of your ticket goes to the production company whereas the booking fee goes directly to the theatre, you could think of it as funding the box office, which is more involved than you might think! (There will of course be other payment from the production company to the theatre). [/quote]
Still don't understand. Shops don't sell an item and say the price shown is for the item and that goes to the producer, we need to charge you some more for displaying it, lighting, the fridges, my friendly banal chit-chat etc.
So why not just shown total price... that's what everybody else does - I think.

@BitterTits

YANBU, such an elitist world. I grew up in a family that couldn't afford theatre, but even now that my own kids would be considered MC, we can only afford the gods once a year for a west end show. I know this probably isn't how you intended the post, but it's exactly the kind of situation that highlights cultural poverty.

This.

I found it hard to weep for performers/opera lovers/theatre goers during Covid when there was a lot on the TV about how terrible it all was. We live in the provinces and could never afford to go to see a West End show with the associated travel costs/staying over and theatre tickets.

It is only for the wealthy.

I looked at booking lion king for DD’s birthday but tickets were £80+ each, plus we would need to book a hotel for a night. Seems like a lot of money.

I know the actors have a lot of talent and need to be paid, hence the high prices. I think the cost of shows, concerts etc is prohibitive, so we just don't go. I can count on two hands the amount of shows I have attended in my life and I am 50. I know it would be nice to take the dcs but a foreign holiday every few years would also be nice, and we can't afford both.

I would suggest booking cheap seats at a place where no overnight stay is involved. Maybe subscribe online and they may notify you of offers.

We live 150 km away from a major town with concerts etc. If we attended these we would have to stay overnight in a hotel or else drive home for 3+ hours at 11pm.

Our cinema sometimes stages concerts and classical music for 20 to 30 a ticket. Ask if your cinema does sonething like this.

I'm lucky and can access theatre in cambridge & peterborough, lots of the touring shows go through them. Just picked up 2 front row tickets for the mousetrap for under £20 each, sadly need to wait until oct 2032.

I’ve just booked tickets for the Lion King as a landmark birthday gift - we’ve ended up going to London to see it as the tickets for a private box in London were significantly cheaper than for the average seats at Bristol, even after allowing for the cost of train tickets

It's not a kids show, it's a musical. Saying that 10 years ago I lived in London and saw most shows available then for £20-40. Not sure pay more. I paid 10 for ballet tickets in covet Garden. Things gone up which you expect. Also alot of theatres have limited seats now

I found it hard to weep for performers/opera lovers/theatre goers during Covid when there was a lot on the TV about how terrible it all was. We live in the provinces and could never afford to go to see a West End show with the associated travel costs/staying over and theatre tickets.

Around 70% of People working in the performing arts are freelance, so we’re not eligible for furlough. Many of them were also not eligible for any other support. Do you really think they were less deserving of support than people in other industries? That their children were less deserving of food on the table and a roof over their heads?

If you compare it to theme parks or doesn’t feel that different and we’d see a big London show once or twice a year as a treat. I’ve been much more regularly to our regional theatre and there have even some great productions that have been quite reasonable.

I’d rather pay £50 a head for frozen and get a pre-theatre dining deal than £40-50 per head for Chessington and pay £20 for some crappy food in a foil tray.

Considering the subsidies they get they should lower prices.

But like everything else if people pay it they will charge it .

That applies to everything from football to university.
As soon as they can charge more they do

I would also recommend the Today Tix app, we had great seats for Cinderella this week for £45 each, and we only booked 2 days before.

Kids week in the summer for buy one get one free tickets is great, we saw 3 shows last year, if you're quick you can see some great shows.

@throughtheair

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.

Gosh no. DD was 10 when we went and only got a tiny discount. I go to the opera at least once a year -often it's Welsh National opera - and have never seen tickets for £5.

I refuse to go to the West End theatres because they are so expensive and have done for a few years now. I just refuse to pay that much for an evening out. I have seen quite a lot of very enjoyable am dram and minor league theatres though. My limit is £10 a head and I normally manage to come in well under that.

I think it totally depends on what you see - my fiancé and I go to the theatre usually 20-25 times a year and rarely spend more than £20 a ticket. West End musicals or touring versions of them are pricey and not massively worth it (IMO), but plays are often very good value. You just have to be in the know a bit.

@starpatch

Honestly don't go for the mainstream stuff. There are lots of regional theatres that are highly subsidised, it will be a much smaller theatre but just as creative. You can usually get something for £10 a head for kids theatre, just ask around.

Totally agree! If you’re looking for it for kids as well they’ll often get MUCH more out of interesting regional theatre than something like Frozen.

To see the big shows it is expensive, it's even worse in the West End. I'm taking my mum to Manchester for her birthday later this year, and as much as I wanted to take her DH, mine and DS, we can't afford it. On the other hand, I'm seeing an am dram performance of Kinky Boots that is considerably less.

What strikes me from reading this thread is that the market for am dram productions must be growing steadily. Tbh I've never considered them unless someone I knew was performing, but I'm now thinking I should open my mind to them.

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles but it's not the same business model as when you buy something in a shop - the theatre isn't retaining the whole transaction like a shop is.

The reason it's not all one price is because the theatre has to be transparent about the fact the booking fee goes to them directly. It has to be kept separate from the cost of your ticket.

It's a shame that people begrudge it, especially now post pandemic when theatres are struggling. Me and several colleagues were made redundant in 2020 from the job we loved, we were genuinely committed to making sure every patron had the best experience. I think theatres deserve their booking fee!

We won free tickets for frozen on sky, a friend won pretty woman tickets on there too so that was 2 free shows I got to see. Worth entering

Also look out for London Theatre Week in August. Last year we saw Come from Away and the prince of Egypt - both under £100 for 3 tickets. I use the Tix app for west end shows. I don’t pay the kind of prices mentioned on here and always have a good view

Tbh I find I enjoy a bit of local am dram or more local/community stuff just as much as major productions and dont bother with west end theatre any more even though we could afford it.

I enjoy watching a dram. My Ds performs in it but it’s nothing like the west end in standards.

@MythicalBiologicalFennel I just looked it up as thought I was misremembering, and looks like it was during their 2013-14 season - I thought it was more recent/ongoing than that but could be wrong! Time goes by so quickly! But it does look like U16s can currently get a £5 ticket if with a full paying adult.

When dd was 3 we took her to see a big production of the gruffalo. We didn't even get the most expensive seats, just mid range £50 each. So for me, dh, & dd it came to over £150.

Dd sat nicely through the production. When we asked her what her favourite thing about the theatre was? The green lit up fire exit signs. .

So yes, we'd spent £150 for dd to be enthralled by fire exit signs. And haven't frequented the theatre an awful lot since.