My Neighbour Totoro - carer tickets or best price?

[NancyCarey]

Looking to book tickets for a family of four to see My Neighbour Totoro in London during Feb half term. Would like to get reasonable ish seats, and prices at the moment seem to be at least £85 each for cheapest non-crap four seats together.

My two children have ASD so I think I can sign up to get some form of carer offer but I’m not sure it’s as good as free carer tickets. (They don’t have special access requirements so don’t need special seating, but they do have Access cards which should provide a discount)

Even if we did get the free carer tickets, we’re still looking at paying at least £170 for the four of us.

I’ve seen folk talking about tickets from £25 on the day but unsure as to whether we would be able to get four together…?

Do you think it’s best to try to see what’s available on the day (Friday night 7pm performance), or should we just swallow it now and pay up to secure seats?

thanks!

Try checking Twickets app, it’s where people sell when they can’t go.

I wouldn’t risk it on a Friday night as it’s still popular.

https://totoroshow.com/assisted-performances/

maybe look at the chilled performances here?

I can give absolutely no help with the tickets but just posting to say I do hope you manage to sort it so you can go because it is incredible. I saw it on one of the first press nights at the Barbican and I can't describe how breathtaking the whole show is. I hope you love it!

Thanks everyone! I had a think and decided to call the theatre directly to check pricing for carers and I am happy with what i managed to book.

I got two carer tickets free, both kids got a discount on their tickets too so we ended up with some pretty good seats in rear stalls for only about £140 for the four of us!

glad I didn’t leave it to chance for a Friday night show.

thanks for all the advice - I’m really looking forward to it now!

Great news! It’s absolutely wonderful, I’m sure you’ll all love it 🥰

That's absolutely taking the piss that they give free carer tickets to parents taking their own kids on a day out! I always thought they were for support workers and others who obviously shouldn't be expected to pay.

Are you really lacking in empathy or did you miss the bit about two autistic children? Have you any idea what it’s like to plan and pay for lovely experiences for your children, only to have to leave because they’re not coping? Or maybe even not manage to get there because one or both of them is dysregulated and having a meltdown?

do you really grudge carers getting free tickets to make this type of thing more affordable and offset the risk of maybe not making it through the experience?

It is no picnic taking two autistic kids out and disabled children’s families often have much higher expenses, eg nappies for older children, having to buy certain brands because it is literally all children will eat, being unable to book holiday childcare because the children can’t cope so having to take time off unpaid from work to cover every holiday etc etc .

These families on average have much lower incomes. Far fewer mothers of autistic dc work, because eg with night waking often being an issue it is very hard to work, leaving aside the struggle of getting any after school childcare for an autistic child.

Hi,
Sorry I am late to this thread. Which website did you use to buy the tickets? Thanks

OP says she didn’t use a website, she called the theatre direct.

Thank you, I must have missed that bit.

Thanks @AlohaRose. Yes @Guest123466 i called the theatre to book over the phone after checking the seating plans to see where we wanted to sit.

the seats were fab and the show was spectacular. It exceeded my expectations and made me feel quite emotional. I was pleasantly surprised at the fact that both kids really enjoyed it and the 14 yo managed his agitation really well - he managed to sit through the whole performance which was a bonus.

really highly recommend this to everyone. Utterly charming! Thanks to all of you for your tips and advice.

Wow

Did someone hurt you?

Thank you very much the update, it is good to hear that you all had a good time. One of my children is autistic, I was thinking if he will be able to sit through.
This is reassuring, thank you.

Both of mine are AuDHD so I wasn’t sure myself but i’m glad it went well.

I hope you all enjoy it!

It is a great show, and I would say there are few (if any) bad seats in that theatre. It’s the (relatively) modern theatre where Cats played for many years.

we had (so-called) restricted view seats - the restriction on our view was a narrow metal handrail running on top of the wall at the bottom of the Circle - i.e. practically no restriction at all.

IIRC the theatre website includes links to a site where you can see your seats’ actual view:”.

Thank you very much, this is very helpful to know as our budget is on the small side. I did look at the seating plans as you mentioned, some seats are restricted view. Definitely good to know that these are ok. Thank you.

we sat in the middle of the back of the upper stalls and the seats were brilliant. However, my husband did say next time we should book seats at the sides because the views aren’t restricted at all and it’s better to be near the exit as the kids are autistic and might need to leave if it gets too much.

I think this is a really good point as we would have disrupted everyone if we had to leave. So you can probably get cheaper seats this way and still have an unrestricted view.