To think that West End shows are not all as overpriced as some on here say?

[Carla786]

I definitely think that people are being priced out by col and this is very unfair. But I also think some posts on here about how unaffordable West End theatre is are exaggerated.
The Globe offers standing room for as low as £5 or £6. OK, it's not ideal as most of us would rather sit down but it does at least mean a lot of Shakespeare & some others is affordable if you're prepared to stand.

Then as to West End musicals : I think an issue here is that pps who cite them as unaffordable are trying to take a whole family, 2-3 or maybe more kids, as well as them & DP. This will be a lot harder than going on your own or with one other person, especially if trying for an Xmas show (though booking in advance might slightly lessen). It does vary based on show too : the most popular will of course be more likely to be sky high.

COL has obviously increased a lot, but I also wonder how affordable West End was in the past for family trips. I was born early 2000s and my mum was able to get a lot of cheap tickets very high up just for me & her. As a child her family didn't really do musicals or plays. In the 70s-90s, were big shows a lot more affordable for family trips?

So I suppose I'd say that I agree prices are too high for a lot of families, and this is wrong : but I'd also caveat that I think there are lot more affordable options than some posts on here imply.

I regularly get bargains for shows by buying last minute stuff online directly from the theatre or on the today tix app.

What show is charging £350 or £175 for a decent seat? I agree this is terrible but how common is this?

It depends on the show, the day of the week, and what time.

I did too! A couple of weeks after I’d booked my friend asked if she could come with me. She went online to get a ticket and the cheapest ticket for that performance was £250.

May I ask which shows you are trying to book?

There are quite a few shows which have non-restricted view seats for around your top price range. I agree it shouldn't be as hard ad it is but also think the situation is not quite as bad :

Hadestown – upper circle seats around £30
Cabaret – upper levels often around £30–£40
Wicked – starting around the high £20s
Les Misérables – upper circle seats around £28–£35
The Phantom of the Opera – similar range in the upper circle
Mamma Mia! – cheaper tiers around the £30 mark
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – balcony tickets can start around £30–£36
Back to the Future: The Musical – starting around £20–£30 depending on performance

I could never afford it. Also at my age I need both my kidneys.

Show me where on that link you can get Les Mis tickets for £25. The cheapest I can find are £50 and they're very restricted view.

This is what I find on all these discount sites, the "from" price doesn't actually exist. If it ever did, it must be for a tiny number of seats.

DH once treated me to Wicked Tickets for my birthday. I was so disappointed for him. He'd paid a lot of money (to us) and we were so high up, we may as well have been watching on a phone.

I'm a cheap date and prefer sitting in the circle looking down on the whole stage to being in the stalls where at the front you are looking up at the actor's feet and further back you have a sea of heads to look through. It isn't up to the theatre to price itself so families can afford a meal out, transport and possibly accommodation on top of the ticket price so that 'the theatre' isn't seen as too expensive. Why should performers sell themselves short because rail and dining prices are high?

So what if the best tickets are £350 - do you only go out if you can afford the best? I think there's a lot of ignorance around what it costs to stage productions in the west end. A lot of the performers are on minimum wage or just above - they really don't need to be paid any less and a lot of the theatres are over 100 years old and have high maintaince and running costs.

There's a lot of hypocrisy around complaints about theatre prices. It seems that for some things - football, pop concerts - it's just fine to charge hundreds. But for theatre it's somehow elitist and outrageous to charge more than a tenner.

Just looked at Les Mis for March 2027. You can get back if stalls for around £50. Early in the week, not weekend.

Good point about concerts. Friends are paying over a hundred pounds each to see Harry Styles .

Tbh that’s a bit of an outlier. The balcony thing and limited run caused it to get hyped up on social media and tickets became gold dust.

same for Leslie Odom Jnr and Hamilton - although the £275 ish here was a bargain compared to the prices in the US for his guest run.

DS1 and I recently saw Book of Mormon. We bought last minute tickets so only paid £30 and were about 4 rows from the front. We both agreed that whilst it was nice to experience being that close, we actually prefer being up in the balcony/upper circle etc.

Hmm..I looked at the June Book of Mormon - are they that bad? They are high up but restricted view is not mentioned.

Paddington musical tickets apparently start at £36. That was a quick search, could be wrong..

I do think Paddington is a bit different though given it came out only last November.

Romeo & Juliet is all over the place. It ranges from as low as £20 to crazy prices depending on what day you choose.

Hamilton is mentioned among the £25 offers I linked.
I admit it's easier for me in that I like most musicals. So there's generally something I like on. And the popular ones do generally go down over time, though that can be a long time (see Hamilton).

Aha, sorry. I checked and the Les Mis offer was actually £31. There are only a few seats available with this and they are restricted side view but they are there.

Might be going to see him I am stupidly excited ! Yes the Broadway tickets were so much more expensive. I have bought them for a friend's birthday

I booked something last minute when the DCs were younger (a live 'event' rather than a play/musical) and ended up in the front row of the stalls. At 5'10 I was level with the performers knees, the kids were eye level with their feet. I've never understood why those were deemed the 'best' seat and have happily retreated to the cheap seats up the gods ever since.

I think live theatre, inc in London, is excellent value. Yes, there are a small number of seats at high prices, but I also saw "Cabaret" for £30, so there is a broad spread.

I consider anything up to £100 for a quality play or musical to be good value..... equally I wouldn't even pay £10 to see (say) Adele or Taylor Swift, but lots of people pay hundreds. That's fine - we all like different things, so our idea of "value" will vary. But all live performances, inc sport, have that special "I was there" quality, and that's something we can all understand. Live theatre needs the West End, as well as regional venues - they're special.

I guess we all live in different worlds, but £31, or £124 for a family, seems like an awful lot to pay for a really terrible view, to me.

The theatres will charge what they can, but I'd rather not go than pay that much for bad seats.

This, people shouldn't forget the amount of work performers are putting in. Most performers are not stars and as you say many don't earn much at all.

I would caveat that I've seen a lot of posters on other threads argue pop concerts and football should be cheaper as they were in the past. Pop is a lot more expensive since they aren't making as much money from records now.
To me some replies feel like saying holidays abroad are unaffordable because 4 star hotels are too expensive to stay in.

I agree I wouldn't pay for restricted view for Les Mis either though I hope to see at some point. But my point you responded to was about there being cheaper seats available, not whether or not they were restricted view.

If you want a laugh look at tickets for the panto at the palladium. I do not know who the hell is going.

Yes, I get people wanting closer seats. I've always loved the balcony though..for me personally I like closeup views in films but at the theatre I prefer more of a bird's eye view.

Out of interest, where were you seated at Cabaret for £30? I'm thinking of taking my DGD(17) at half-term

Personally, I didn't like "Six", but I still think £37 is an absolute bargain when you consider you're getting a live performance, actors, band, venue, lighting, sound, backstage crew, front of house staff etc etc. Just imagine how much it costs to put on even a small show, and then you really can't criticise ticket prices. The theatres are just about getting by, or even making losses - it's a hugely expensive business.