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

Good god, what an outrage! I couldn’t afford those prices! I’m glad I’m near a traditional little theatre, where ticket prices are affordable.

Saw Hamilton again last week. Great seats for £70. To be able to witness all that genius and talent in a beautiful old theatre in central London. All those performers. The orchestra, the service staff. The sheer cost of it all. £70 is an absolute bargain! A regional cinema ticket can cost £15.

YABU. I often go to West End theatre, and pay a lot less, even for dress circle.
Plus, the market decides - if people didn't pay, the market would have already collapsed.

£200 Hamilton tickets are the premium stalls seats, most seats are way under that. It's one of the most reasonably priced.
Or operation mincemeat, I think they are all £95/£85.

I would budget in the region of £100 a seat, so my day out costs in the vicinity of £600 rather than over £1000. It's a lot - I tend to pick my favourite child and just go as a pair!!
Just checked Elf for a random evening, lots of seats under £100, although maybe not the particular day you are going.

Me neither!

I just cannot get my head around paying a hundred quid per person for a theatre ticket. And I say 5hat as an Eng Lit graduate.

I love drama, but I’d watch a film, dvd or something o iPlayer. I live on a different planet to people who can afford theatre prices.

qe should count ourselves lucky - prices here seem low compared to NY. Hamilton prices there are currently way over $1000 as one of the original cast is in it. Even normal seats for other shows seem a lot more than London.

That said Evita also went sky high at the end of the run.

The showing of theatre productions in cinemas is a brilliant democratisation of drama.

I agree. I saw a streaming of A Woman of no Importance from the NationalTheatre and not only did I get the most perfect view of the whole production, but there’s always a great interval feature too - interviews or a historical topic connected with the play. Beats struggling to the bar!

And I’ve loved the streamed operas too. All this for £15 pre Covid!

It’s ridiculous but it won’t be the death of the industry as there are plenty of people willing to pay. Unfortunately the vast majority of us will be priced out

The people who run these businesses are not stupid. As with hotels & airlines, they set their pricing at levels which their analysis indicates their customers will be prepared to pay. This pricing will be based on data not guesswork. And if they get it wrong and the theatre is half empty, they will soon change their prices.

Seats in the last few days of October are much cheaper. I just checked.

Those prices are ridiculous, but they'll sell.

So, no, they're not going to perish. They going to make a whole heap of money from a short season of a Christmas show.

But there'll be loads of other great Christmas shows you can go and see for far less money.

I’ve just looked and can’t see a ticket over £182. 🤔 and most stalls seats are £88. Can you look at different dates maybe?

Not terribly festive in November!! I take your point but if we are getting to the point of saying £180 is a bargain then we’re in trouble!!

It’s for our traditional (20 years plus) Christmas outing…

No, I still don’t agree with you so to add to my post earlier, in the early 00’s pretty much up until Covid, west end tickets were expensive for the good seats: £70 - £200. It’s never been a cheap activity, although there’s always been deals. As wages have gone up and will continue to go up it will always be an affordable treat to those of us on average incomes who love the theatre experience so I don’t think there’s been a change.

I don't know - people come from all over the world to visit London year round. Perhaps they will buy the tickets as a blow out expenses as they're on holiday. Plus there are plenty of grandparents with cash swilling around-perhaps they will buy tickets for their GC. I imagine the people who have put the prices up so high have done so because they have some sort of algorithm or market analysis. All they need to do if they want more people in is to drop the price a bit anyway.

Plus lots of people are fed up with too many toys so may get such tickets as a christmas experience.

£180 isn’t a bargain (to me) at all, but a few tickets sold at that price to those who can afford them will help to pay for the production. The vast majority of seats there are £88 too, which probably is a bargain considering how many people are involved and the cost of the project. If you assume there are 20 actors then you’re paying them £4.40 each for their performance

You can get £10 tickets every Friday at the National for performances the following week, which is one of the best bargains I’ve heard of for a long time. They also do reduced price standby tickets an hour before the start of each performance.

What are these teacher discounts you speak of? 🧐

It is completely elitist, and yes, ultimately it will be the death of the theatre.
It’s ‘dynamic pricing’ and I loathe it.

There's plenty of really good theatre outside London that won't cost anywhere near to those prices. I agree that it's not sustainable but they will be bleating for tax payers help when they price themselves out of the market.

The producers of Elf The Christmas Musical will not ask for or expect government subsidies. They will make a nice amount of money.

Try Central Tickets.