theatre seating - best seats

[dizzydo]

can't decide between circle and stalls. Which are the guaranteed best seats wherever you sit. My DD is quite small and quite often even when we have paid top money she ends up not being able to see. Anyone have this problem and has any advice please?

I always buy aisle seats in the stalls, then at least if you do have someone with a big head (or a beehive hairdo!) in front of you, your little one can stand in the aisle for a bit.

front three rows of the centre of the circle are good, it's where the director, designer & lighting designer tend to sit during all technical rehearsals and you get an uninterrupted view

My English teacher who took us as a class to the theatre every month for two years (and was an ex theatre actor) always recommended sitting as close to the middle and as close to the front as possible for full immersion into the experience of the play. In terms of being less distracted by the theatre and becoming involved with the drama it really works. Depends on what you're going to and with whom, though - less essential if it's the Wiggles with small children (def go for maximum short person viewing potential) than Macbeth with your dh.

Agree with ediemay, as a rule, you cannot go wrong with front circle, although depending on the raking it can be a bit scary to get a child into the seats.
Sightlines in centre stalls of Olivier at the RNT are uniformly excellent, wonderfully designed auditorium.
Great link jura

I prefer the stalls. For small children if you ask at the desk when you arrive they often have booster cushions which allows small ones to see. hth

Have bookmarked that link. Thanks

front row of the circle. Much better than the stalls, though rakes can indeed be scary and you have to do the whole don't-put-anything-on-the-ledge spiel.

Theatre Monkey is v good, but if you're out in the sticks Ticketmaster has seat plans for almost all provincial theatres - you have to go through as though you want to book tickets for a show and then back out before they want your credit card number.

Actually I keep a note in my diary of best seat numbers for places we go regularly

i asked a girl at the box office at drury lane theatre 'what are the best seats', and she said they are told they are the ones where the director and producer sit when casting the show. basically about eight rows back in the stalls. they include an aisle seat.

Just got back to this thread. Thank you so much for all your responses. Great thread Jura and what a good idea to write down when you have had good seats, wished I'd thought of that before. Thanks everyone

I have taken DD's car booster seat in to cinemas and theatres before. My other tip is to take your jacket fold it up and then zip childs jacket around it to form a cushion, can make all the diffence.

jura - thanks for that excellent theatre seating website. It was a huge help when I booked tickets today to see "The Snowman" in December.