Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - are the cheap seats any good?

[SockEatingMonster]

DD wants to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. She'll only be 8, but based on her love of theatre and the Harry Potter books and films and the fact I'm desperate to see it too I think she'll enjoy it.

I usually book cheaper tickets but, given the visual nature of the performances and the fact that it's always slightly potluck over who gets the booster seats, I'm wondering if I should budget to spend more. Bearing in mind that if I do budget to spend more, it will probably be at the expense of her seeing some of the other shows on her list...

Can anyone who has been, especially those who have taken younger children, advise?

sock the website suggests the play is suitable for children aged 10 and above, so 8 may be a bit young for right now. Have you been to the studio tour? That would be good if not :)

I have actually gotten them twice, but it took 8 months for the first set and then a month and a half after that for the second.. so it does take time. But it is soooo worth it!

Eugh we went for cheap seats right up in the balcony and it was AWFUL. it was July and absolutely stifling (sweat dripping off everyone - the SMELL not envy!), it was so cramped I wanted to scream and so so so high up a lot of people were leaving as they felt ill. The play was amazing but I so regret the seat choice - we should have spent more.

I agree about vertigo in the cheap seats.. But I paid £88 each for both parts, x that by 6 add in afternoon tea in the break and it was 850 pounds... Which is outrageous for a trip to the theatre.
OK.. We did go to fortnum and masons for afternoon tea :)
I personally think theatre tickets are so over priced and take advantage of families particularly, I am sure loads of people have children who love the books and have contributed to jk rowlings considerable fortune, making tickets so expensive for a play aimed at these young fans I think is shameful.
The only thing I will say is though, the show was so good I did forget about the vertigo eventually, but not before I had been sick twice

I saw the website was suggesting 10+ loopsdefruit, but she loves everything theatre (she does youth theatre too) and loved Phantom of the Opera & Little Shop of Horrors, so I thought she'd be ok. I hadn't, however, factored in that they are both musicals, so easier to engage with, so thanks again to the person who pointed that out. She followed the plot through the HP books ok, but of course could ask me questions and re-read bits she found less clear. So I think, on reflection, I will give it at least another year, do the studio tour, then start hitting the Friday Forty religiously!!!

Thank you so much to everyone for sharing your experiences.

"but not before I had been sick twice"

Yes... It really was that vertiginous...

The plot is not difficult to follow but for a younger child I would honestly recommend saving up for a year and paying for lower seats

As per a PP, I would really recommend Theatre Monkey (www.theatremonkey.com/). I use it every time I go to the theatre to research seats. It is great for telling you which ones are over-priced, what is a bargain, and which seats to avoid at all costs. There are often reviews of specific seats, and usually reference to specific shows. It really is a great resource.

We sat in the stalls for HP, in row K seats 4 and 5. The view was fine, although there were a couple of tiny things that happened on the far right of the stage that we couldn't quite see, and also one thing that happens higher up that we couldn't see immediately (keeping the secrets on what!). It was incredibly expensive though!

Bear in mind that seating at the Palace is cramped throughout (IMO), and my very tall DH did struggle a bit.

Being realistic, you may not have any choice of seats. Tickets are incredibly difficult to get hold of. If you look now for dates in the school holidays with both parts in same day, there are hardly any pairs of tickets. I was lucky and got some in the last mass release booking for over a year in advance and only managed middle of upper circle as best seats available (and they still cost almost as much as the stalls & dress circle tickets). Definitely do your research on what seats you'd be happy with beforehand. You have just moments to make a seat selection if you're lucky enough to get high enough in the queue to get tickets in the mass release. I dithered, looking for better seats on a different date, and then lost the (slightly) better seats I'd originally chosen, fortunately they came back as available a few minutes later.

Make sure you sign up for the mailing list so you have notice of when the next mass ticket release is - due Spring 2018 - and then put that date in your diary and make sure you are glued to your computer at the critical time for a few hours that day. (Thankfully my workplace were understanding! ) You have to log in to a 'waiting room' at a certain time, then you are randomly allocated a place in the queue for tickets. Then it's just a waiting game as your queue number ticks down and you eventually get to enter the bunfight. Good luck.

That's odd - we got our tickets in the mass release too, but although we were allocated at random, I was definitely able to change the selection. I fiddled about with it for a few minutes before I was happy. But perhaps they have changed it? I got mine almost 2 years ago now, 18 months in advance

It was when I was changing the selection to a different date to see if I could get better seats that we lost the original allocation. When I couldn't get anything better, I tried to go back to the original choice of date and the seats had been reallocated to someone else and we then had a worse allocation of seats. Honestly it was the most stressful ticket-buying experience I've ever had. You only have a few minutes to make your selection and check out so you can't play about too much and seats are being snapped up all the time. I imagine there would have been more choice for dates outside school holidays. I don't know if there is a difference between Nimax and ATG ticketing sites.

I don't know if there is a difference between Nimax and ATG ticketing sites.

Nimax tend to have more tickets allocated than ATG.

I just got home literally 3 hours ago from a trip to London to see The Cursed Child with tickets booked over a year ago in the mass release last January.

I was logged on to both ATG and Nimax and was in the queue for both as soon as the tickets were relased and it took about 3 hours before I got through on Nimax. ATG had sold out at least an hour or so earlier but when I got on through Nimax I still managed to get seats in the back of the stalls.

They were in the highest price band but being at the back of the stalls they were restricted view seats but other than a couple of moments that happened at the very top of the stage, our view wasn't restricted at all.

One other thing I would also consider is whether you want to watch it over consecutive nights or both shows on the same day. My friend and I originally decided to see it over 2 days purely because it gave us an excuse for a longer visit to London and as we were child free it gave us more nights to go out drinking but we were actually glad we chose not to see both in the same day as it gave us time between shows to digest and discuss the story without feeling rushed into the next one (I am a huge HP fan so I knew the story whereas my friend had not read them and didn't know what to expect, so it was nice for us both to have the chance to hear each other's takes on Part One, to have a bit of time to reflect before going back to Part Two)

In addition we are both fairly tall and the seating in the Palace Theatre is pretty cramped so after sitting in the theatre for 3 hours we were both starting to feel stiff and achey and were glad of the 24 hour reprieve before the second part. I think that if we had seen both parts in one day, by Part Two we would have been too distracted to actually focus on all the detail going on on-stage. Related to that in Part One the theatre was freezing (fortunately as we had come to the theatre from sightseeing we were layered up anyway) but we then knew that we needed to wear extra layers for Part Two regardless of how mild the day was. We were sat near someone who said the theatre was usually overly warm so they hadn't prepared for it being so chilly and on day two they came wearing far more layers... if we were seeing it on the same day there was no way we'd have had time between shows to get something to eat, go back to our hotel to pick up a jumper/hoodie and make it back in time to get through the security line again before the second show.