To think that West End Theatre is going to perish due to over pricing?

[VanCleefArpels]

Elf the Musical is back for the festive season. Fabulous! Let’s book……

Stalls seats £295/300
Circle seats £200 / £250

With train fares (not far away commuter belt) plus maybe a quick pizza afterwards a family of four will be spending a four figure sum for a night at the theatre. The best part of a month’s salary for many ordinary people.

How can this be sustainable?

IABU - suck it up, it’s not compulsory
IANBU - this kind of pricing will be the death of West End Theatre

Yes I agree......
Concerts are the same. My son wanted to see Oasis but we could only find tickets starting at £300 each. We didn't buy them.

You can get tickets for some musicals form 20 pounds.

if you want to see popular ones over Christmas with the whole family then yes it will cost.

Totally agree OP. For festive theatre, I'm sticking to the local, slightly amateur panto. £15 per ticket.

I just won’t pay it. That said, I got some very reasonable tickets for mean girls last year. Stalls seats (restricted view that wasn’t actually restricted at all) for £50 each. You have to book early and take a chance on the seats for a good price.

I often see thing when they tour at local theatres as much better value.

No it won't go broke.

Visitors spend the money. Londoners pay on special occasions. British people pay for special occasions. Locals and regular theatre goers go for cheap tix.

I buy West End tickets about 6 times a year for DD. I try not to spend more than £25-£40 a ticket, though I've splashed out £50 on a front of circle Othello ticket as DD is doing it for Alevel.

Id love to know where these £20 tickets are - most likely in the nosebleeds or behind pillars I’d guess. No thanks! I get there will be a cost (I’ve paid £200 for Hamilton in the past!) but £300 for basically a panto is taking the piss

You’ve clearly never been on TodayTix. It might surprise you. You can see what seats are available then cross check them on view from my seat. I’ve never paid more than £35, sometimes I get a stall seat for that.

We saw Mean Girls on Broadway in 2019, superb musical! I won’t risk a bad view I’m afraid, scarred from 80’s student days where you used to be able to get tickets in the Gods for £5. I saw the original Les Mis through the prism of the lighting rig 🤣

Being blunt, the test isn't whether you pay it. The cost may still be sustainable above your price point.

Are the tickets selling, do you know?

I’d say that YANBU, but I go to the theatre a lot and the West End is thriving. Clearly lots of people are willing to pay (including me). It is bloody expensive though.

My sister was in London few weeks ago so I thought I’d have a look at prices for the two of us and my daughter… £650.

I don’t care who’s in it, what production it is - I could never justify that amount of money!

My son gets them last minute on the morning of, and pays £10/20, and he’s seen some great shows and the seats are great. Only downside is you can’t plan ahead at all!

Problem is you need to be able to plan ahead with Festive things due to busy diaries so can’t rely on the more last minute options

I think that it's just for the Uber wealthy now, not that it will perish 🙃

These shows are sold out ( or close to it) night after night so someone is paying. Same as the London restaurants and bars- absolutely packed out. It’s like a different economy to the rest of the Uk but always has been to an extent.

Yes that is true. I will say though that I don’t think Elf is worth it even at a lower price, it’s really pretty mediocre plus I don’t care for the performers they’ve chosen for Elf and Jovie.

I think the majority of the uptake for it will be tourists spending some time in London from abroad and will probably just pay that for a Christmassy west end experience.

You can look online at the views from most seats at all the big theatres. That’s what i do. I’ve brought quite a few “restricted view” that weren’t restricted at all. Most recently my £35 dress circle seats for Mary poppins which had a fantastic view.

the choice really is, take an informed chance on the view, or pay through the nose.

No. It won't die off because some people will pay those prices.

I won't, I see about 10 shows a year and I'm prepared to take a slightly restricted view for a reduced price a lot of the time. We paid £40 to see Evita this summer from the fourth row of the circle. We couldn't see a small (very small) part of the stage and it was an acceptable compromise for me. I research how 'bad' the view will be beforehand and weigh up if it's worth it. A lot of the time you miss a small portion of the stage or have a slightly side on view.

It's not always pillars or nosebleed.

Elf is especially high, but no different in price really to the Palladium panto which is their competition. They know people are prepared to pay extra for the 'making Christmas memories' element so do it. Personally, I'd never pay that...but if people will and it keeps actors in jobs and theatres open, all the power to them.

You sound very naive. West end theatre tickets have - generally speaking - never been cheap. Just because you can’t afford those sky high prices it doesn’t mean that plenty of other people can’t. The theatres will continue to thrive, as they have done for decades, because they’re still putting many bums on seats.

I think their market is tourists, who are less bothered about paying huge sums as it’s a special treat.

I agree it’s become a very expensive night out - but tbh I find any family activity once multiplied by 4 tickets feels usurious.

I go to the theatre twice a month at least and never pay.more than £50, but usually £35. Still bargains to be had on lastminute and TodayTix with the aid of Seatplan.

I see shows in the West End a lot, I think the most I've paid is £45.
I paid £25 for Evita this summer.
It's very affordable if you accept you won't have the best seats.

Yeah TodayTix and then use View from my seat to check what you can see.

I love west end shows. I personally find the Wednesday matinees (if the show is doing them) the best value. You can usually go through the website as well by calendar view and it’ll give you prices and availability by date.

Yes the nosebleeds, but I've never had a bad seat yet.

We check the view - there are various websites with photos of the stage from those seats.

It's not hard. I book once the show is announced, often 6 months ahead.

I treat it the same way as tickets for a gig. DD tells me which date she can go, we do fastest fingers at 10am when the tix go on sale.

However she did go to see R&J in New York last year at the last minute and so DH got stung for the very expensive seats.

We also invested in a pair of vintage opera glasses!

Yabu.

The theatre is now for rich people and people with an NHS/teachers discount code.

the rest of us can go fish.

Theatre isn't going to perish. It's just going to price a lot of us out. There are enough people who CAN afford tickets to sell out the shows.. and until that changes, they're going to charge as much as they possibly can!

Sadly it's not a right to be able to afford everything you want to in life.