What to wear to the theatre?

[SparklyMistleToes]

My husband and I are going to an afternoon performance in the theatre district of London. Do people dress up any more? It's been years and years since I've gone to the theatre, and back then it was an evening show so I did make a bit of an effort and wore a nice dress and heels since we also went to dinner.

Am I right to think that an afternoon show will be more casual? Are jeans acceptable? Paired with nice shoes and a top obviously?

People don't really dress up anymore. Wear anything you feel comfortable sitting in :)

Afternoon or evening, pretty much anything is acceptable. Though you might get some odd looks in full black tie 🤣 Wear whatever you like.

No, not at all, just wear comfy clothes. Have a lovely time 😊

Thank you. I always love to dress up, except when I look out of place. Definitely no black tie attire sadly! 😆

I'll aim for the the cliché jeans and a nice top option.

Don’t get me wrong, dressed up is fine too, there will be plenty of people doing that as well as those in jeans, if you enjoy dressing up and it will add to the special occasion, go for it!

Jeans are fine. Just what you’d wear for lunch really. I think it’s a shame people don’t dress up anymore, but they don’t.

I was thinking about this actually. I wondered if a lot of it had to do with tourists. Obviously I don't necessarily expect tourists to wander around sight seeing in formal clothing before or after seeing a show, so it's a bit of a tricky one.

I recently went out to lunch at the Ivy Brasserie in Covent Garden. While the brasseries and not the same as the original, I have been to other locations and would dress up to go to them. But the Covent Garden one was shambles! People packed so full in there and a poor layout didn't help, but there were a lot of tourists with back packs, baseball hats, and even shorts! And it was COLD! To be honest the casualness of so many people on there really detracted from the experience.