To think these theatre prices are outrageous?

[takeharry]

Currently looking at HAMILTON tickets, now I understand they have a ‘star’ casting in Leslie Odom Jr, original broadway cast but FIVE HUNDRED fucking pounds? For one ticket?

There are a few £250/£275 tickets left but the vast majority left are £500.

AIBU to think there should be some sort of regulatory body to prevent this kind of bullshit pricing?

£1k for a couple to have an evening at the theatre

OK, well, it costs around £10 million in upfront costs to put on a big show. It costs around £1 million a week to run it, pay the staff, the royalties and the theartres share fo teh box office. Capacity of the Victoria Palace Theatre is around 1,500 people I think. Some days are more easy to sell than others. What would you charge for a ticket?

Im not having a handled time understanding, I have reiterated many times that I understand why the tickets are £500. The point of my thread was I think it’s a fucking ridiculous price for a seat at the theatre, regardless of why it happens.

That is ok maybe we got off on the wrong foot. You paid what you could afford and other people are just paying what they can afford, as i said though £500 is outrageous but people will pay if they want to see someone.

Private businesses can charge what they like for a non-statutory service like this, as long as they can find people to pay it. Who are you to tell them to work for less?. What's next, are you going to regulate the price of tea at the Ritz or tell Beyoncé what to charge for tour tickets?

I dare say that very famous original 'Broadway Cast' performers are paid considerably more than your run-of-the-mill ordinary cast members. If the cost of putting on those performances is higher, then they will need to recoup that cost somehow.

Imagine how much tickets for Wicked would increase by if they were doing a short run with Taylor Swift playing Glinda.😂

I don’t think there’s any need to apologise, some of the comments have been unnecessarily harsh. I agree £500 is expensive for a ticket. I can afford it, but imo it’s not worth the price.

Yes..what? Why should the business charge less than they could have done? And take money away from those who work there to put on this performance, money they need to pay their families?

What's do ridiculous about it? It's expensive, so what? What's your point about making this thread? Get over yourself.

I’m not qualified to make that decision but I do know it’s been making money for years without charging £500 a ticket, so hardly necessary to keep the business afloat?

Gosh you are so rude

No need to be so rude. Point if thread is quite clear: is £500 for a ticket too expensive? No need for all the sarky comments about economics courses.

Bloody hell, some really rude people on here.
@takeharry it is a lot for theatre tickets isn’t it?

I thought so, but it turns out I might be the one BU here and £500 is totally acceptable!

I don't know why you're getting such a tough time on this thread. To me 500 quid is a holiday - a night at the theatre would be about £100 absolute max but that's probably because I'm not in London and can't usually afford West End shows.

That said, I was absolutely delighted to be able to snag 2 front row circle seats (admittedly with limited leg room but I'm short anyway) to Hamilton for £90. It was entirely worth it!

My other worry is if I paid so much money for a ticket, I couldn't relax and enjoy the show because as soon as someone rustles, or fidgets, or coughs more than twice, I resent them and their odious behaviour!

Some people love to stick the boot in for no reason. I bet none of them would pay it either though!

I think the OP is getting a bit of a hard time here.

I'll be in the UK during August and looked into getting Hamilton tickets, and that's when I actually saw LO Jr was going to be performing, and thus tickets weren't on sale for any of the dates I could go yet. I tried the day they went on sale for Leslie Odom Jr, but wasn't able to get tickets as they were showing as sold out on the website (due to work, I wasn't able to be sitting waiting so it was about 4 hours after they went on sale).

I looked the other week just in case there were resale tickets etc, and was also stunned at the £500 price tag on all remaining tickets.

It's all well and good (and true) saying "it's business, supply and demand, you just can't go etc etc", but that price is galling, prohibitive (I'm guestimating but probably close) to over half the population, and I'm not a poor earner (a head teacher in the country I live in. £500 works out to be 75% of a week's wages for me. I just can't justify spending over 2 weeks' wages for myself, my husband and our son to go. So we're not.

IMO the OP is correct in that £500 for a theatre ticket is outrageous.

I find tickets for live theatre/musicals generally to be expensive but somewhat understandable. A big show might involve a couple of dozen real live people on stage, plus musicians, technical staff, all the expenses of running the theatre building and providing lights, sound, costumes, sets etc. It seems right that this costs quite a bit. Cinema tickets, in contrast, seem harder to justify.

That said, £500 a ticket just seems exploitative. There has to be a limit!

As a PP said, theatre is very high risk, expensive business (especially a musical with a big cast) with a limited audience (in this case 1,500 a performance) to make money from. If yours is the 1% of shows that make any profit at all and that are in high demand you set pricing to offset those costs AND to invest in future productions.

Last year the West End had its highest ever visitors, highest ever box office and was bigger than Broadway. There are thousands, possibly tens of thousands of people who will pay £500 to see Leslie Odom Jr in Hamilton. This is a city of venture capitalists and trust fund babies and we also get loads of wealthy tourists.

It's Hamilton, a splashy showbiz American musical. It's very enjoyable and clever but there's nothing worthy about it that would suggest it should be more inclusively priced - it's not the RSC. That ticket price is well in the range of a Premier League match - it's the same sort of experience.

And if you think £500 is expensive - try having a son who is desperate to see the NBA play in London. £500 would be at the bottom end of pricing.

I object to paying that much but also understand that it isn't any of my business what a private organisation charges for their product. Also, the theatre is dull as fuck.

On the other hand, I do like cars. I suggest a super car regulatory quango, stuffed with civil servants setting the UK price of Ferraris.

OP bought tickets before they were £500, she can go enjoy the show. She seems £500 and asks "damn that's a lot". We explain why it's priced that way, the fact these are closer to the show time, supply and demand because there's a big star there and she's just like "oh it's ridiculous". Again, there are going to be people willing to pay this price, to them it's not ridiculous, it's a expensive but worthwhile purchase.

I think you are getting a hard time here OP. Yes I understand why the tickets are so much but it is just another sign of everything becoming so expensive. Lots of ordinary people are being priced out of events. It is little wonder that people spend money on Netflix and a few takeaways a month when that is cheaper than doing pretty much anything else.

Again.

I did not need you to repeatedly tell me why. I know why.

It s supply and demand. Yes it is expensive. You can go see a different show for top price £250 or less. You do not have to go.... for some people it clearly is affordable or seats would be empty?

Theatre tickets are ridiculous for what is just people prancing about on stage, pretending to be someone they are not.

Philistine.