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The elitist price of theatre tickets

AnnO'Neemus said:
Cheapest cinema in town is currently the Odeon Great Northern, £4.99 if you book online, iirc.

Vue hiked prices up to £7.99 booking online, think it's a quid more if you turn up and try to buy tickets/pay in person.

I used to go a lot, if I was in town shopping or whatever, I often used to pass by and see what movie was starting next and used to watch something in the afternoon or weekday early evening. Now the price difference irks me. It's only a quid, I know, but it's the principal, it's the same cinema, same auditorium, same screening of the same film, but they're charging me more. Grrr!

Plus I hate those new chairs. I'm a short arse, only 5', and those chairs are way too big, I can't get comfortable in them, plus they're plastic, so you end up sticking to them if you're wearing a dress or skirt, which I often do. And I want to sit up, but my legs are waving in mid air and it's uncomfortable, yet I don't want to recline and watch movie while leaning back uncomfortably. Designed by men, for men.

Everyman's nice but expensive.

HOME's good, reasonably priced, especially their concessionary rates, fabric chairs, not cheap nasty pleather ones.

Speaking of HOME, top tip: if you happen to live in social housing, ask your tenants and residents association about HOME's community outreach programme called Inspire.

You can get tickets for £1 for their theatre/dance etc productions if you go as part of a community group. I've been to see some good stuff there.
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I’m the opposite. I’m 5’10/11, and I can’t get comfortable at all in those kinds of seats. I end up having to drape my legs over the chair in front and all kinds of things (and that’s only if I’m lucky enough to have a seat in front that nobody is sitting in - if they are then I’m fucked, and in for a very uncomfortable two or three hours, so the film better be fantastic). It’s worse in heels, because then your leg length is technically extended by another four inches or so, which takes up even more room because you’ve suddenly transformed into being 6’3 for all intents and purposes. But I don’t always want to wear flat shoes on a night out.
 
I went to see Oklahoma and our seats were really good. Although you get the inconvenience of having to let people by when you're on the end, I love an aisle seat.
 
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My other issue about live events (talking sport here really) is that I don’t really want to go and sit in a rubbish seat. The viewing experience is probably better at home on tv anyway. So by picking a seat with a better view I accept I have to pay more, as it’s not worth the hassle of going in a cheap seat
 
Saffy said:
I went to see Oklahoma and our seats were really good. Although you get the inconvenience of having to let people by when you're on the end, I love and aisle seat.
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Yes, aisle seats are best in theatres and cinemas. But it does come with the added complication of having to smile at people who you are letting by, when the last thing you want to do after getting up and squashing yourself against the seat back is to offer a friendly smile, so it comes over as really false. It’s really a smile that says ‘don’t make a habit of this’, which is a hard thing to pitch just right.
 
AnnO'Neemus said:
Cheapest cinema in town is currently the Odeon Great Northern, £4.99 if you book online, iirc.

Vue hiked prices up to £7.99 booking online, think it's a quid more if you turn up and try to buy tickets/pay in person.

I used to go a lot, if I was in town shopping or whatever, I often used to pass by and see what movie was starting next and used to watch something in the afternoon or weekday early evening. Now the price difference irks me. It's only a quid, I know, but it's the principal, it's the same cinema, same auditorium, same screening of the same film, but they're charging me more. Grrr!

Plus I hate those new chairs. I'm a short arse, only 5', and those chairs are way too big, I can't get comfortable in them, plus they're plastic, so you end up sticking to them if you're wearing a dress or skirt, which I often do. And I want to sit up, but my legs are waving in mid air and it's uncomfortable, yet I don't want to recline and watch movie while leaning back uncomfortably. Designed by men, for men.

Everyman's nice but expensive.

HOME's good, reasonably priced, especially their concessionary rates, fabric chairs, not cheap nasty pleather ones.

Speaking of HOME, top tip: if you happen to live in social housing, ask your tenants and residents association about HOME's community outreach programme called Inspire.

You can get tickets for £1 for their theatre/dance etc productions if you go as part of a community group. I've been to see some good stuff there.
Click to expand...

HOME asked me to take my feet off the table - so they can go fuck themselves - I don't live in MCR any more anyway, so can't go in that often - shame - as it would have been a 5-minute walk from our old apartment.

But seriously, HOME's normal ticket price [no concession of any sort applied] is £9.15, which isn't cheap. It's a less dickhead filled and arty wannabe environment generally speaking, but I've always found them a bit sniffy when I've been in there. YMMV. They do have a nice cafe and bar though.

I hate the £1off for booking via the app bollocks too at Vue - I assume other places do it? But that's the way of the world these days and we're not going to reverse it. The only option is to support places like HOME (come back Cornerhouse!), The Dukes in Lancaster, The Brewery in Kendal and a lot of other smaller, indie, artsy, less Hollywood & Popcorn type venues whilst we still have them to frequent. It's the chain-cinema equivalent of using the scab tills I suppose.

If you have one near you (that's the Royal you, all of you), and can afford it, become a member/supporter/whatevertheycallitatyourplace and go there for a coffee if they have a cafe instead of going to some chain. I try and do this when I'm nearby, meeting people etc. I suggest there. Become a volunteer if that's your thing (you usually get to see the film/play for free too).
 
I always wanna go to see Northern Ballet (I went for the first time last year and it was absolutely amazing!!). But it’s forty quid, and I just cannot get my head round paying that for a ticket. You can get twenty quid tickets but what’s the point if your miles back and can’t see owt.

I mean forty quid is what I’d spend on a meal out for me and a lad together. So it’s not like I don’t spend that on an evening out. For some reason I have this absolute mental block spending it on entertainment. I also wouldn’t pay it to go to a gig (never been to one), or stadium show (ditto), sport thingy (literally no idea why).

I absolutely would and do regularly spend £40+ on gifts for friends, the kids, train tickets.

There’s not much sense to it really.
 
belboid said:
Theatre is expensive to put on. Which isn't any excuse for some of the West End prices, which just seem to charge whatever they can get away with. It is annoying though that there seems to vibe a regional price which is just the going rate for whatever it is. I paid £30 each for tix for Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of the Dead - by a 'notable' company, with fairly famous actors. Which is a perfectly decent price and I have no objection to. But then I paid another £30 each for Buffy Revamped, which is just one bloke in a long leather coat talking (and throwing himself about a bit) for seventy minutes. It does seem somewhat unbalanced.
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Yeah, £30 for the brilliance of Buffy Revamped is an absolute bargain! :p
 
It’s a damn shame that tickets for West End shows in particular are so bloody expensive, but in my experience they have always been so, and in every country where I’ve been to mainstream productions. So it might not necessarily be a ripoff Britain thing, at least not wholly. I think the production costs of running a show live every day plus the smaller overall budgets compared with most films Hollywood means theatre tickets are always going to be far more than the cinema equivalent for anything other than fringe plays on the upstairs room of a pub.

One area where theatre land takes the piss is the inflated prices when a major play first opens. At least with films they charge you the same whether you watch a blockbuster on the first weekend or months later. Some of them start just shy of a hundred notes even for the shittiest seats.
 
klang said:
Last time i went to the cinema was the first date with my gf. 18 years ago. I can't remember how much it was but I'm sure it got a lot more expensive.
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Depends. Loads of places do cheap night on a Monday/Tuesday (a fiver or something), buying a membership pays for itself if you see like three films a year....
 
I did recently fork out for Cabaret later in the year and got the second cheapest tickets, which seemed shockingly expensive. The more expensive ones seemed unbelievably so. Have prices shot up after COVID because of the financial hardships the arts faced in and after lockdown?
 
Go once a year around Xmas time to West End. This year it was Carmen. Great seats front row, brilliant view i was delighted, until the hair-spray-heavy bubble-permed conductor arose right in front of me and I could hear his energised huffing, puffing, hissing and watch the light reflecting off the bouncing perm for the next couple of hours.
 
T & P said:
It’s a damn shame that tickets for West End shows in particular are so bloody expensive, but in my experience they have always been so, and in every country where I’ve been to mainstream productions. So it might not necessarily be a ripoff Britain thing, at least not wholly. I think the production costs of running a show live every day plus the smaller overall budgets compared with most films Hollywood means theatre tickets are always going to be far more than the cinema equivalent for anything other than fringe plays on the upstairs room of a pub.

One area where theatre land takes the piss is the inflated prices when a major play first opens. At least with films they charge you the same whether you watch a blockbuster on the first weekend or months later. Some of them start just shy of a hundred notes even for the shittiest seats.
Click to expand...

Some places do cheaper tickets - I recall the Royal Opera House and the ENO used to years ago although I've not been recently (I like a bit of opera) if you were ok to go on like a Monday night or to a matinee performance or similar or queue for a leftover standby ticket, and The Globe does cheap tickets for plays if you're OK to stand, RAH does cheaper tickets again unseated if you are OK to stand in the upper balcony - it's not necessarily always particularly accessible though in older theatres and venues, especially if you are older or have some mobility issues (but not severe enough for a blue badge).
 
domestos said:
Go once a year around Xmas time to West End. This year it was Carmen. Great seats front row, brilliant view i was delighted, until the hair-spray-heavy bubble-permed conductor arose right in front of me and I could hear his energised huffing, puffing, hissing and watch the light reflecting off the bouncing perm for the next couple of hours.
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That'll learn you to sit right behind the conductor
 
Agent Sparrow said:
I did recently fork out for Cabaret later in the year and got the second cheapest tickets, which seemed shockingly expensive. The more expensive ones seemed unbelievably so. Have prices shot up after COVID because of the financial hardships the arts faced in and after lockdown?
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That was a particularly outrageous one because they took half the seats out of commission so had to ratchet up the price for the ones that were left.
 
Santino said:
That was a particularly outrageous one because they took half the seats out of commission so had to ratchet up the price for the ones that were left.
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Really wanted to see that but the price put me off and I thought it could easily be done at a smaller venue. After all it isn't set in a top end theatre
 
I’ve been going to the theatre in London regularly for 30 years. West End has gone up a lot, particularly when they have a star involved from the US or telly. Seats are and always have been terribly uncomfortable. A better bet is the National or the Barbican or the smaller places. There are good deals for young folk - my 17 year old can go to the National for £5 if she is organised.

The best big commercial (non-subsidised) theatre in London right now imo is The Bridge (next to the old GLA building). Run by Nick Hytner and Nick Starr (ex-National). Better value than the West End and comfortable seats.
 
Not adroitly though. More lower sixth form level. Must try harder.

Tut tut. Editing your post after reading my reply to beef it up is rather pathetic. Yes, before you say it I know I had to edit my reply to comment on it.

BTW. In case you haven't noticed, I'm mocking you now.
 
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You're not anyone. You're the bad boy rebel of U75 with a single goal. To be the most blocked. There can be only one
 
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